Thine Own Self
by gidgetgirl
Summary: While Faith and Lindsey search for the demi-Faith, the Fang Gang discovers the result of Connor's birth: a baby vampire born to human parents; Hopie's first loose tooth; bad girl Anni COMPLETE!
1. Whip Cream

DISCLAIMER: I own Hopie, Anni, Leo Bunny, Maddy, Colette, Nic, Clay, Chance, Joss, Kendall, Caleb, Dakota, and a few others we'll meet later.  Joss owns all BtVS and AtS related characters and the show mythos.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm writing this a bit early, but we'll see if ff.net lets me post it.  Please Review, b/c I've got so much work to do that the only way I'll find time for this fic is to stay up late, and if it comes down to sleep or writing, the reviews tip the scales.

If you haven't read any of the previous fics, I recommend doing so, but here's a quick introduction of the OC's and an update on the other characters.

**Hopie** Chase Angel is Angel and Cordy's adopted daughter and the possessor of the world's most ancient magic, which serves as an inter-dimensional essence copy-machine.  Through this magic, she has acquired the powers of Buffy, Angel, Cordelia, and Connor, as well as the powers of the ancient magic she can sometimes harness.

**Anni** (Annabella Suzette) Wyndham-Price is Wes's little sister and a 'non-slayer,' an almost thirteen year old with slayer strength called by the opposing power, the power of Turot, an ancient slayer turned vampiress.

**Leo Bunny** A magical healing bunny; Cordy's pet

**The Potentials: **After Giles replaced Travers as the head of the CoW, the Potentials were split between Sunnydale and LA to train with Faith and Buffy respectively.  Individual profiles are as follows.

**Maddy** Lady Madeline, the youngest Potential at barely twelve and a member of the British nobility, currently living in LA; if you go back and look at Things Unseen, you just might see some very subtle foreshadowing about our Lady Madeline, but I won't say anything else.

**Colette** Sixteen, the quiet Potential who tends to fade into the wall, also in LA.

**Nicolaa** Nic, the oldest Potential at Seventeen, and the most serious, she protected the girls from a sadistic Travers; currently in LA.

**Kendall** Fifteen, currently in Sunnydale.

**Joss** Fourteen, currently in Sunnydale.  She's a weasel.

**Chance** is more than a Potential, she's a 'demi-slayer,' a virtual genetic copy (by 'chance' as it were) of Buffy upon whom the monks bestowed Buffy's slayer essence when they made Dawn from Buffy's other half.

**Clay** is Maddy's twenty-year old older brother, currently living in LA and pursuing a reluctant Nicolaa.

**Faith** and **Lindsey are married, and after the honeymoon, they began to look for the demi-Faith.**

 **Angel and **Cordy****** are engaged.**

**Anni** is dating **Jordy**, Oz's cousin and a teenage werewolf.

**Willow** is currently pregnant with **Wes's** baby, a boy who was stolen from Lilah's womb by the Watcher's Council and returned by magic, to Willow's.

**Lilah** is now single handedly in charge of Wolfram and Hart.

Oh, and in case you get confused **Kody is a nickname for ****Dakota.  They are the same person.**

AND NOW, THE STORY…

Thine Own Self: Chapter One

            Hopie Chase Angel looked longingly out the window of the waiting room.  It was sunny outside.  

            "Hey Momma," she said, tugging on Cordelia's shirt.  "It's real sunny outside today."

            Cordy nodded absent-mindedly.

            Hopie tried to get her attention.  "If Daddy went outside he'd fry right up, huh?" she asked, her voice a little louder this time.

            Cordy shot Hopie a warning look.  "Yes, Hope," she said, letting the little girl know that vamp talk was off limits in public by using her given name, "your daddy is very fair skinned and such bright light would surely burn him right up."

            Hopie decided to take a different angle.  "Don't you wish you were outside, Momma?" the four year old asked her, batting her eyelashes.

            Cordy nodded.  Truthfully, she wasn't any bigger a fan of the dentist's office than Hopie was.

            "Cause you know, Momma," Hopie said seriously, "you could be outside.  We could just go and play and not go to the dentist today."

            Cordy tickled her daughter underneath the chin.  "Hopie, baby, it will be all right, I promise.  I'll go in with you and the dentist won't hurt you."

            Hopie crossed her arms over her chest.  "Maybe I'll turn him into a frog," she said sullenly.  A thoughtful expression crossed her face.  "Or a sheep."

            Cordy, caught between a laugh and a sigh, addressed Hopie seriously.  "Could you do that?" she asked the child in a whisper.

            Hopie shrugged.  "I dunno," she replied.  "I never tried." 

            "Don't," Cordy said, pulling Hopie into her lap and snuggling with the little girl.  Hopie wished briefly that it had been Daddy who had taken her to the dentist.  Momma never fell for cute little girl eyes like Daddy did.

            The little Shanshu heaved a big sigh and laid her head down on her mother's chest, her bottom lip stuck out in the beginnings of a pout.

            Willow stared down at her stomach, amazed at how big she'd gotten in the past months.  Finding maternity clothes was beginning to get tricky, though Buffy had found her a few really cute outfits.

            Strong arms slipped around the place where Willow's waist had once been, and Wes leaned forward.  Willow leaned her head back onto his shoulder, and the two of them stood for a moment in silence, something they had begun to do every morning.

            The door to their bedroom in the Summers' house flew open.  Buffy stuck her head in.  She smiled softly at the sight of the two together and cleared her throat.

            "Not to be all interrupt-y," she said, "but have you seen the girls?"  It was Saturday, which meant that none of the Potentials were at school, but Buffy had some plans regarding training.

            Willow smiled as she gazed out the window to the backyard.  "They're out back, Buff," she said, her lips curving into a smile, "catching some rays."

            Wes looked out the window as well.  "For the love of all things good in this world, what the hell is Anni wearing?" he said, his voice rising a bit.

            Willow rolled her eyes, and Buffy joined them, looking out the window.  She bit down on a smile.  "Wesley," she said seriously, "I believe they call that a bathing suit."  It was a stunningly normal sight: Dawn, Anni, and the three Potentials were lying on beach towels, each in the search of the perfect tan.  They could have been any teenagers in the world.

            "That," Wes sputtered, "is not a bathing suit.  For crying out loud, Will, it barely qualifies as a handkerchief.  My little sister is out there wearing nothing but some skimpy Travel-Sized-Clue-sized bikini."

            "You know, Wes," Buffy said, "there are some phrases that British men just shouldn't say, and 'Travel-Sized-Clue-sized' is one of them."

            Willow nuzzled Wes.  "Sweetie," she said reasonably, "she's in the backyard, and her suit's a lot more conservative than Dawn's or Kendall's."  Buffy looked out the window again.

            "Hey!" she squeaked.  "That's my bathing suit Dawn's wearing."  She squinted again.  "For that matter, I think the one Kendall's wearing might be yours, Will."  

            Wes got an interested look in his eye imagining a non-pregnant Willow wearing that suit, but the he simply rubbed her stomach lovingly.  Pregnancy became the Wiccan.  

            "Buffy, didn't you want to do some training with the girls?" Wes asked, trying to sound casual.  "Some fully clothed training?  Preferably conservative clothes?"  Buffy and Willow both snickered at the plea in Wesley's gruff voice.

            Kendall lazily turned over onto her stomach, and the others followed suit.  

            "I think your bathing suit is cute, Chance," Anni said, trying to placate the other girl.

            Chance looked glumly down at the only suit in the entire household that fit her, an old one of Dawn's.  "It has ruffles," she said darkly.  "Why am I so darned tiny?" she asked, her voice as tiny as her frame.

            "You're tiny because Buffy is tiny," Dawn reminded her.  "Give it a few years, and you'll have guys all over you.  Buff does."

            Chance took a minute to sigh privately at the mental image she got of Spike.  It must have been something in the genes she shared with Buffy, but she found the vampire intriguing and more than a bit yummy.

            Suddenly, Chance grabbed her forehead.  

            The other girls, with the exception of Joss who had fallen asleep on her towel, gathered round the demi-slayer quickly.

            "What's going on?" Kendall asked, taking charge as always.  "Is it those damn visions again?"

            Chance blinked and the world came back into focus.  "They aren't visions," she said, her voice barely more than a whisper.  "They're just flashes."  Ever since she had been reunited with Buffy and Faith, Chance had been receiving flashes, momentarily seeing things through another person's eyes.

            "What was she looking at this time?" Dawn asked calmly.  She'd already begun to think of Chance as a little sister.  It was nice to have someone to boss around, especially since Anni merely scoffed in her general direction whenever Dawn tried to boss her around.

            "One of those ugly statue thingies," Chance replied.

            "A gargoyle?" Anni asked.  The little blonde nodded.

            "Freaky," Dawn said.  Chance shook her head slowly.

            "I think she was kinda happy to see it," the demi-Buffy replied, and everyone knew that the she Chance was talking about was the other demi-slayer, the demi-Faith that Lindsey and Faith were currently seeking.

            Kendall, convinced that Chance was fine, got a wicked expression on her face as she looked at the sleeping Joss.  None of the Potentials had quite forgiven Joss her betrayal at Council Headquarters, and Anni held a particular grudge regarding the way Joscelyn looked at Jordy.

            "Hey guys," Kendall said, the very picture of innocence, flipping her dark brown hair over her shoulder.  "Joss is sleeping."

            "Shall we flounce her, then?" Anni asked, using what had become their universal word for describing anything unsavory done to Joss.

            "Course," Chance replied smiling.

            "Guys, don't you think you should give Joss a break?" Dawn asked, feeling that somebody needed to be the voice of reason.  "Ooooh, I think there's whipped cream in the fridge," she added, "but you didn't hear it from me." 

            The girls trooped into the house after aforementioned whipped cream, Chance walking a step behind the others.  Her heart was still pounding in sync with the other demi's.  The two of them were connected somehow, and she wondered exactly what her other half was doing.

            Dakota Kincaide looked at the gargoyle on the front of her Connecticut mansion, a self-satisfied smile on her face, her dark hair swept into an easy ponytail and her hands hooked loosely in the super low waistband of the designer jeans she had carefully torn across the upper thigh.  

            "Home sweet home," she said wryly.  She turned to her driver.  "I'll help you with the bags, Mick," she said.

            Mick grinned at the girl.  Miss Kody was something else.

            Together, the two of them and the hand full of servants who had seen the car pull up carried Dakota's bags to her room.  Kody flopped down on her bed, a wicked grin on her face as she carefully tore the lace off the dust ruffle for maybe the seventeenth time in her life.

            Hallie, one of the maids, grimaced at the ripping sounds.

            "I don't like lace," Kody explained.

            "Yes, Miss Dakota," Hallie said.

            Kody sighed.  "You can call me Kody, you know," she said, more out of habit than anything else.  The truth was, she was getting to the point where she rather liked her full first name.

            Dakota Grace Kincaide did have a certain ring to it, even if the Grace part made her sound like a bit of a pansy.  Of the many things she was, Kody was not a pansy, as the last girl who had made the mistake of challenging the rather petite Dakota had found out the hard way.  She looked around the room and ceremoniously rid it of the color pink.

            "There," she said, rubbing her hands together.

            "Dakota," a voice said from the doorway.

            Kody turned.  "Why Daddy," she said grinning lazily, "you almost don't sound happy to see me."  Dakota's eyes floated toward the window in a quick trellis check.  Her old escape route was still in tact.  Excellent.

            "That's the fifth boarding school in three years, Kody," her father said.

            "You can afford it," she told him, her tight black shirt hugging her body more than it should have, her light skin almost glowing in the light of the room.

            Trenton Charles Kincaide the Third straightened his already impeccable shirt.  "Dakota," he said.  "That's not the point.  Now, I have a business function to go to, so I will see you tomorrow."  As abruptly as always, Kody's father left, leaving her to pick up the small basket of potpourri on her nightstand and launch it out the open window at the blonde bombshell currently swimming in their pool, one of her father's many personal assistants.  She heard a splash a moment later as the basket hit its target.

            Dakota never missed.  She had impeccable aim.

             Faith aimed the crossbow and shot it, the arrow embedding itself so deep in the target that Maddy couldn't pull it out.

            "Sodding hell," Maddy said cheerfully, "good shot, Faith."

            "Language," Clay called to his little sister from the stairwell where he was watching the Potentials train with the Slayer.  More accurately, he was watching Nic train under the pretense of watching over Maddy.

            "Can't you think up some new curse words?" Faith asked, demonstrating another perfect shot as her second arrow split her first.  "Those words are getting old, kiddo."

            Maddy grinned wildly as she jogged over to the other Potentials, standing next to Faith.  "Methinks that was a challenge," she said, her eyes twinkling.  Faith shrugged.

            Without a word, Faith handed the crossbow to Nicolaa.  The tall brunette took it silently with the grace that marked all of her movements and took aim.  She prepared to fire.  From behind her, she could feel Clay looking at her, but she ignored him, even as her lips tingled from the spot where he had kissed her several weeks passed.  

            She pulled the trigger and fired, hitting respectably close to the center of the target, though not nearly as close as Faith or even Hopie could have managed.  She turned silently and handed the crossbow to Colette.

            The mousiest of the Potentials took aim and fired, hitting the bullseye.

            "Nice," Faith muttered, high praise.

            Colette shrugged.  "Hopie and I have been playing," she explained.  Crossbow, Hopie's own favorite weapon, sat safely on her bed next to her stuffed animals.  She had tried to take it with her to the dentist's office, but Cordelia had put her foot down, so Crossbow stayed home with Patsy the stuffed dog and Bob the flamethrower.

            As she watched Maddy excitedly take the bow, Faith felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise just a bit, and her stomach was filled with pleasant butterflies.

            She turned toward the door to smile at her husband.  When she saw the look on Lindsey's well-sculpted face, her heart skipped a beat.  Wordlessly, something passed between them.

            "You found her," Faith said, just as Maddy managed to shoot the edge of the target.

            "We're not sure," Lindsey said, repeating the words he'd said each time his sources had identified a young girl they thought might be the recipient of Faith's slayer essence and her more dominant physical genes.

            "We'll leave as soon as I finish with the girls," Faith said.  She turned back to her Potentials and introduced them to the beauty of the glaive.

            Kendall, Anni, and Chance shot very innocent looks at Anya and Spike, who were sitting at the kitchen table, as they made their way toward the refrigerator.  Dawn went over to talk Spike out of the prize at the bottom of the Lucky Charms box.

            Kendall had just taken the whip cream in her hand when they heard someone clearing her throat behind them.  The three of them turned around guiltily.

            "Whip cream?" Buffy asked.

            The girls looked at each other, the very picture of innocence.  Buffy didn't trust that look.

            Willow, ever astute, asked the key question.  "Where's Joss?" she asked.  The pregnant woman knew what it was like to have to fight for forgiveness, and though she hadn't yet been able to talk herself into liking Joss, who was quite often Queen C-esque without the polish, she felt the need to stand up for her.

            "Outside," Anni said casually.  She sent a smile at her brother, who was still staring at her bathing suit.

            "Anni luv," he said, "what were you three planning on doing with the whip cream and what the hell are you wearing?"

            Willow elbowed him.  "Just answer the first question," she told Anni, "and ignore the second older brotherly one."

            The girls were silent for a moment until Kendall was struck with inspiration.  "Have you ever seen Varsity Blues?" she asked the adults.  Anni and Chance hadn't, so they missed the reference, but Dawn snorted trying to keep her laughter to herself.

            "No," Wes said slowly.

            "I have," Anya said brightly.  "The whip cream bikini idea isn't as much fun as it looks.  I much prefer an icing and dollar bill bikini myself.  Xander looked quite fetching in it."  Spike choked on the blood he was currently drinking.

            Wesley's voice turned dangerous and got caught in his throat.  "Whip cream bikini?!" he asked.

            "What?" Chance squeaked.

            Anni burst out laughing at the expression on her brother's face. 

            Buffy finally broke into a smile.  "Go change clothes," she said.  "We have some training to do, and for crying out loud, somebody go get Joss.  And be nice to her."  Kendall sauntered past Buffy, still carrying the whipped cream.

            Buffy held her hand out.  Kendall shrugged and handed it over.  "I had to try," she said.

            "I got another flash," Chance said, changing the subject before anyone could say anything to Kendall.  The others listened as Chance described the flash again.  

            As Faith's thoughts drifted to the girl who would be the closest thing to biological family she had, Lindsey walked down the steps toward his wife, his stride long.  She turned suddenly and threw a knife at him.

            He caught it easily, as Faith had known he would.  Lindsey hadn't been in the demon business without picking up a few tricks.  Faith beamed at him.  She turned to the girls.

            "Don't try that at home," she told them.  Maddy added it to the long list of things she'd been told not to try at home.

            "Where's Hopie?" Lindsey asked.  "She'll be pretty miffed when she learns you guys were 'playing weapons' without her."

            "She's at the dentist," Colette said, surprising everyone by speaking up.

            "Hopie Chase Angel," the assistant said.  Cordy got up, carrying Hopie in her arms.  The Shanshu child could battle demons with the best of them, but she was scared of the dentist.  It was comforting to realize that Hopie, magical warrior though she was, was just a very little girl.

            "Well aren't you adorable?" the assistant asked cheerfully.

            "No," Hopie said mutinously.  "I'm not."

            "Hopie," Cordy chided gently, hugging the child a little.

            "Fine," Hopie admitted, sighing a very adult sigh.  "I am."

            Cordy and the nurse both burst into laughter.  

            "They're so funny at this age," the nurse commented.

            The blonde woman raced after her son, surprised at how adept he'd become at running in the past year.  

            "Cale," she said, laughing.  "Caleb, wait for Mommy."

            The little blonde boy turned and beamed at her, his little fangs showing in his smile.

            His mother sighed.  "No grrrr face outside," she reminded him, glad that her son was able to enjoy sunlight despite his condition.  Then again, the mystical doctors she had consulted had warned her that as he grew, Caleb might develop more of the normal weaknesses of vampires.

            She struggled to push the word out of her head as she looked at the little boy, who again appeared the smiling cherub the outside world knew.

            "Mommy," the two-year-old said, "juice?"  

            She dug into her purse and pulled out a Kool Aide juice box she had added a few drops of her own blood to.  Her little boy was special, but she couldn't have loved him any more had he been a fully human child.  She couldn't have loved him any more had his father not bolted the moment their child had sprouted fangs.

            Finishing his juice, Caleb started running full speed toward the slide.

            "He's a demon for energy, isn't he?" another mother asked the blonde woman.  

            Caleb's mother smiled.  "You have no idea," she said.  Soon, she would have answers.  The mystics had pin-pointed the disturbance in the magical weave of the world that had caused Caleb's condition, and she would know if there was anything she could do to stop it.

            Connor Angel looked in the mirror, wondering if he could manage to grow some whiskers.  He had no idea that a thousand miles away, a little boy playing in the park owed a lot to his very existence.

            Connor rubbed his chin. Nothing yet, but he had a feeling that something was about to happen.

TBC… I know, lots of plots going on at once, but there is convergence, and honestly, the convergence brings out the real plot… if you have questions, ask them, but all will be answered in time.  There's a BIG surprise (the first of many) coming next chapter… review and let me know what you think of Kody and Cale, as well as which little scenes you'd like to see.  I'll try to update on Sunday if I can.

REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1


	2. Pucker up

DISCLAIMER: I own Hopie, Anni, Maddy, Chance, Kendall, Nicolaa, Colette, Joss, Clay, Cale, and Kody.  All characters associated with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel the Series belong to Joss Whedon et al.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Okay guys, thank you so much for reviewing.  Please don't make me all sad by not reviewing this chapter.  *Very Pathetic look that makes me look years younger than I am*  Enough said, I hope, on the review front.  Anyway, thought I'd answer some quick questions of reviewers.

Amphitrite: Yes, it means exactly what you think it does.  

Ichargrl: I hadn't thought of Kennedy at all, but hey, maybe Kody is Faith meets Kennedy's background.  Works for me.

Mcat: you'll get your Spuffy, no worries

Kitty-kat: A demi-slayer is a younger, almost complete genetic copy of a slayer, with some slayer powers that will develop over time, and for my answer to the 'bats for the girls team,' you'd have to read Le Bella.

If you have questions or requests, let me know!

OKAY, STORY TIME NOW

Thine Own Self: Chapter Two

            "Come on, Cale baby, Mommy has an appointment to go to," the woman said, tossing her blonde hair over her shoulder as she bent down to her son's level.  It was hard to believe he was almost two years old.

            "Okay, Mommy," the little boy replied cheerfully.  She reached out and tousled his blonde hair.  He growled at her good naturedly.  She laughed.

            "Juice, Mommy?  Better juice, please." Cale's voice was hopeful and wheedling.  His mother sighed.  She'd been trying to add less blood to the juice over time, but Cale always noticed.  She looked at him.  He looked pale.  She picked him up, and the tiny boy rested his head on her shoulder.

            "When I grow up, I'm gonna be fireman," the little boy mumbled sleepily, "or maybe a puppy-dog."  Cale laid his head on his mother's shoulder, and she offered him a finger.

            He sucked contentedly on her finger, his little fangs piercing it just a bit.  As he fell fast asleep, she removed her finger from his mouth, and he groggily put his entire hand in his mouth, slurping messily in that little-boy-fast-asleep way.

            With the sun playing off of his blonde hair, she thought he looked like an angel.

            "Vroom Vroom!" the little boy said in his sleep.

            His mother sighed.  Her little boy was a demon for energy, in more ways than one, and she was about to figure out why.

            "Why?" Hopie asked the dentist when he informed her that she needed to open her mouth wide.

            "Because I'm going to look at your teeth," the dentist replied with a goofy grin.  Cordelia struggled not to roll her eyes at him.

            "They're all there," Hopie promised.

            "What are?" the dentist asked. 

            "My teeth," Hopie said.  She opened her mouth and closed it quickly.  "See, all there.  Let's go, Momma."  Hopie hopped down from the chair she was sitting in, pulling at Cordy's hands.

            Cordy scooped her up.  "All right, you little monkey," she said, "be good for the doctor, and then we'll go home and you can play with the girls and Aunt Faith."

            Hopie climbed back into the chair, the look on her face so morose she looked as if she was climbing to her death.

            Very bravely, she opened her mouth wide and let out a war cry.

            The dentist jumped, startled.  Hopie shrugged.

            "Somehow," she said seriously, "it just felt like the right thing to do."

            Kendall stared at Joss as the girl struggled through the basic training exercises Buffy was putting them through.  She rolled her eyes.  Joss was such a wuss.  Even Chance, barely half Joss's size, was doing fine, as was Anni, though she was years younger than Joss.  Granted, Anni and Chance had both already received slayer powers, but Kendall shrugged off that thought.

            "Okay," Buffy said finally.  "Let's spar."  Kendall struggled not to rub her hands together.

            Buffy looked at the four girls in front of her and realized that Chance, Kendall, and Anni were all looking very anxious for the chance to flounce Joss.

            "Chance and Joss, Kendall and Anni," Buffy said, taking the safe way out.  Chance was still small enough that she wouldn't hurt Joss too badly, and of the three, she was the least likely to relish kicking Joss's ass.

            As the girls fought, Wes and Willow watched them from the back porch.  As he watched Anni move around in the poor excuse for a shirt she was wearing, a pained expression came over Wes's face.

            "So now she's wearing a napkin exercise outfit instead of the Travel-sized-clue-sized bikini," Wes said, glumly.

            "It's called a sport bra, Wesley," Willow said, her voice wry and a smile on her face.  "Kiss the baby and shut up."

            Wes obediently bent down to kiss Willow's stomach but then surprised her when he picked her up and tickled her.  She screamed with giggles.  

            "Put down the pregnant lady," Willow instructed, trying to keep her voice serious.  "See my not-happy-I'm-up-in-the-air face?  Put me down, mister."  

            Chance turned to watch, her sense of romance heightened, as Wes brought Willow gingerly down and pressed a long, dramatic kiss to her lips.

            Anni rolled her eyes.  Wes was always doing that.

            Joss took Chance's distraction as an opportunity to throw the younger girl on the ground.  Anni and Kendall both gritted their teeth, an instant away from jumping into the fray and pummeling Joss the Weasel.

            From on the ground, Chance spun quickly to her feet, kicking Joss's legs out from underneath her as she flew to her feet.

            "And that," Kendall said loudly, "is why you don't piss off a demi-slayer."

            Buffy walked over to Joss, who was lying on her back in the yard, the breath knocked out of her by the fall.

            "Are you okay?" Buffy asked her, trying to forget the fact that she didn't like the girl either.

            Joss nodded and slowly rose to her feet.

            All of a sudden, Chance's eyes glazed over, and Buffy knew that she was having another flash of the other demi-slayer.

            "Okay," she said, making Wes wince, "that's it for training.  You guys are free to do what you want."

            Anni made eye contact with Willow, and she knew that she had magic lessons with the Wiccan who was becoming like a sister to her.

            After a moment, Chance's head cleared, and she walked inside and sat down on the kitchen floor, curling into a small ball next to the refrigerator.

            Dakota walked carelessly toward the fridge, swinging it open with careless vigor.  She looked inside.

            "Damn," she said out loud, "nothing good."  She shrugged and, quickly finding her father's hiding space for what he considered chunk change, pulled out a wad of bills.  

            "This," she said out loud, "could be fun."  It was good to be home.

            "Well, well, well," a voice said from the doorway, "if it isn't the little princess home at last."

            Kody turned to smirk at the blonde woman.  Her father went through them so quickly that she didn't bother to learn names.  Instead, she named them after famous TV dogs.  After looking at the woman a moment, she smiled a dangerous smile.

            "Astro, right?" she asked.  The woman, whose name was actually Astrid, gave Kody a confused look.

            Dakota slapped her forehead.  "What was I thinking?" she asked herself, her voice drawing out with the words.  "Astro was the frigid bitch with the bad perm who just wanted my dad's money.  You're the slutty bimbo with the bad dye job who just wants his money, which would make you…" Kody stared at the woman long and hard. "…Old Yeller."  Kody put emphasis on the word old, before slinging the fridge door shut and sauntering past the blonde woman.

            Astrid gave the fourteen year old a sharp look.  "What is wrong with you?" she asked.

            Kody turned around as she backed out the door.  "Me?  Nothing.  I'm five by five."

            And with that, she walked out the door, leaving Astrid, still dripping wet from being knocked off her raft by Kody's potpourri missile, to contemplate the Old Yeller comment.

            Kody put the money in the back pocket of her too-tight jean and spoke softly to herself.  "Five by five," she mused.  "I wonder where that came from?"  She shrugged.  It didn't really matter.

            Dakota Kincaide walked down the street of her affluent neighborhood, just daring anyone to mess with her.

            "Are you all right?" Lindsey asked Faith as she finished putting up the weapons.  The Potentials had all skedaddled to different parts of the hotel, and Faith was going through the motions of her post-training routine.

            Faith brought her head to Lindsey's chest, taking in the smell of his body.  Even without wearing cologne, he smelled like something she couldn't put her fingers on.  Something wonderful.

            "Five by five," she whispered into his chest.  He put his fingers underneath her chin and lifted her face to meet his eyes.

            Faith struggled to take the emotion out of her face, but she couldn't do it when she was looking into those darkly lashed eyes of his.

            "I just really hope it's her this time," she said, her voice catching.  "The world can be a nasty place, you know, and I don't want her to have to…"

            Faith trailed off, and Lindsey knew she was thinking about her own experiences.  "Sorry," she said, punching him in the chest playfully.  "Don't mean to go all weepy on you.  I don't know what's up with me lately."

            Lindsey rubbed his shoulder, thinking that the slayer hit with a little more punch than she meant to.

            She leaned up and kissed him, full on the lips.  As always, she kissed with more punch than she meant to.  

            Maddy watched from the stares, entranced.  She wondered if kissing like that was a slayer thing.  After a moment, the girl decided that she needed some kissing practice.  If she was going to be a slayer, she was convinced she needed to know how to lock lips with the best of them.

            Skipping happily off, she went to find Connor.

            "Hello, pet." 

 Chance looked up when she heard Spike's roughly accented voice.  Her heart beat a little faster when she took in the way the black t-shirt fit his body.

            "Hey Spike," Buffy said casually, and Chance realized that neither of them realized she was there.

            Spike stood, looking silently at the slayer for a moment.

            "What?" Buffy asked, a smile entering her voice.

            "I was just thinking," Spike whispered, "that you look awfully well-rested for someone who didn't sleep much last night."  He pushed a piece of hair tenderly off her face, and Chance sighed, caught up again the romance of the moment and completely missing the implications of what Spike had just said.

            "It make you think about having your own?" he asked suddenly.  "All those little slayer-ettes running around, including the little Buffy.  Make you feel all ready to be a mum?"  Chance smiled when he referred to her.  She wondered briefly if there was a little Spike out there: a bad boy with a British accent and a great bod who'd look at her the way Spike looked at Buffy.

            Buffy shrugged.  "I don't know," she said.  

            "Children can provide a valuable tax deduction," Anya said, coming into the room.  "I've been thinking of having a couple myself."  Buffy and Spike stared at her, shocked.  "Of course that means I'll have to have sex," Anya said, "but that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.  On a totally unrelated note, where did that whip cream go?"

            "Well, little lady, I don't think it will be that long until you have your first loose tooth," the dentist told Hopie. 

            He turned to Cordelia.  "She looks good," he said simply.

            "Uh, thanks," Cordy said, not sure how she should respond.

            "Loose tooth?" Hopie asked suspiciously.

            The dentist nodded.  "And then the tooth fairy will come."

            Hopie, remembering stories she'd heard at kindergarten, nodded.  "And I won't shoot her with my crossbow," Hopie promised.

            The dentist looked confused.

            Cordy laughed nervously.  "Kids," she said.  "Go figure."

            Cale was still sleeping on her shoulder when his mother received the news.  "So what you're telling me," she said, "is that my son is the way he is, because somewhere on the other side of the country, a vampire gave birth to a human baby?"

            "Nearly human," one of the mystics corrected her.

            "Just as your son is nearly a vampire," another said.  "There are forces that must be balanced in this world.  Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.  Your son just happened to be born in a moment when the balance was thrown off.  His birth, and his condition, simply restored the magical balance."

            "What's his name?" she asked finally.  "The human born to two vampires?"

            "Connor Angel," one of the mystics replied.  The woman, her eyes opening wide with memories, said nothing.

            Finally, regaining her steely composure, the woman cleared her throat.

            "Is there anything I can do?" she asked, "to change it?"

            The mystics were silent for a moment.  "There's a witch," one of them said finally.  "In Sunnydale, California, a powerful wiccan in her own right, and her power is magnified by the child she carries, also a child of balance.  If anyone can give you those answers, she can."

            "Concentrate, Anni," Willow instructed the girl gently.  Anni, thinking of the fact that none of the others had to take magic lessons, tried to comply.

            A small ball of fire appeared in her hand.

            Willow smiled.  "Good," she said.

            "Wills," Anni said, giving her best batting eyelashes look.  "I learned how to do this a long time ago.  Can't we try something a little more… I don't know, fun?"

            All of a sudden, Willow gasped, and Anni's hand flew to the older woman's stomach.

            Anni felt power flowing from her hand into Willow's womb, and she felt her energy draining from her.  She tried to remove her hand, but she couldn't, so she just took a deep breath and waited for the moment to pass.

            Hopie burst through the door to the Hyperion, yelling at the top of her lungs.  "I'm home!  You can come play with me now."

            Cordy laughed at the little girl's queenly manner.  "Indoor voice," she reminded her.

            "What?!" she heard an outraged male voice yell from upstairs.  

            "Connor, it has nothing to do with you," Maddy was saying when Cordy and Hopie found her and Connor talking.  "If I want to be a slayer, I have to learn how to kiss.  The only other guy even close to my age here is Clay, and he's my brother.  So it's gotta be you.  Pucker up."

            Connor, his whisker wishing moments behind him, started backing toward the door as Maddy advanced on him.  The small girl backed him into the corner and placed a cautious kiss on his lips.  Connor relaxed, reminding himself that Maddy was just a kid.

            Maddy, remembering what Faith's kiss had looked like, tried to kiss Connor like that.  Connor pulled away.

            "Are you crazy?" he asked her.  "Maddy, you're twelve!"  Cordy started cracking up at the beet red color Connor's face turned.

            Maddy glared at him, secretly delighted with the kiss.  "Fine," she said.  "Be that way.  I guess I'll just have to find someone else to kiss."  

            "I guess you will," Connor replied, stammering and shooting a pained look at Cordelia.

            Maddy stalked out the door and past Nicolaa and Clay in the hallway.  Her brother was leaning in to kiss the older Potential.  

            "ARG!" Maddy said, scaring them both as she ran by.

            Clay and Nic looked at each other and started cracking up.  "Any idea what that was about?" she asked him.

            He shook his head.  "We're talking about Maddy here, so it could be pretty much anything." he said, smelling her hair and nuzzling the side of her face.  She stiffened.

            "Clay," she said, "you don't won't to do this."

            He rolled his eyes and kissed her on the lips.  "How many times do I have to tell you I do?" he asked her.

               "I don't want this," she said, still determined not to get involved.

            "Don't you?" he asked, leaning in for another kiss.

            Connor, suddenly realizing what Maddy had gone to do, ran out into the hall, directly into Clay and Nicolaa.

            "Have you seen Maddy?" he asked.

            "She ran by here a minute ago," Nic replied.  Connor groaned.

'           "What did she go to do this time?" Clay asked.

            "She's looking for guys to kiss," he said.  "The same way you were just kissing Nic."

            Clay's wrinkled his forehead.  Maddy?  Kissing?  This was just unacceptable.  "Well, where's she gonna find guys to kiss?" Nic asked reasonably.

            "Gonna go play some pick up basketball down the street.  See you later," Maddy yelled from downstairs.

            For a moment, Connor, Clay, and Nicolaa paused at the top of the stairs, and then the three of them went running off after Maddy.

            Cordy leaned down to Hopie.  "I think we're seeing what Connor is going to be like when you start dating," she said.

            Angel walked into the room.  "Hopie is never going to date," he said firmly.  "You don't like boys, do you baby?" he asked for confirmation.

            "I like some of them," Hopie said thoughtfully, thinking of all of her uncles, "but most boys are yucky."

            Angel thanked the Powers that Be for small favors.  He kissed the top of Cordelia's head, hugging her from behind and putting his hands around her waist.

            "But then again," Hopie said thoughtfully, "Aunt Anya says that…"

            "Don't finish that sentence," Cordy interjected.  Hopie complied.  She tilted her head to the side for a moment and then smiled.

            "Something big is happening," she said.  "All over, something big is happening."

            Faith and Lindsey prepared to leave for their journey.

            Kody pocketed a package of cigarettes at the convenient store.

            Anni broke her hand away from Willow's stomach, amazed.

            And, packing clothes for herself and her son, Kate Lockeley climbed in the car and started the long drive to Sunnydale.  Cale murmured in his sleep.

            "Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig," he said.

            Kate brushed the tears out of her eyes.  It hadn't been easy to hear his name again, to know that Caleb was the way he was because of Angel's son.

            She put on her tough police woman face.  She'd find a way to make this better for her little boy.  Caleb sucked his fingers loudly.

            Hopie popped her thumb in her mouth and began sucking it in experimentation.  She took it out after a moment.

            "Baby coming," she commented.  Her parents, caught in a kiss, didn't hear her.

            Lots of babies coming, Hopie thought.

TBC… ok, I promise less confusing soon, in a few chapters, a bunch of the story lines will converge, so much less complicated.  If you have questions or requests, let me know, but since I got up at 5 this morning it's now nearly 2 in the morning, all of you people had better review, or next time it will be sleeping.

As for Kate, well… you'll see…


	3. Murmurings

DISCLAIMER: I own Hopie, Anni, Maddy, Chance, Kendall, Nicolaa, Colette, Joss, Clay, Cale, and Kody.  All characters associated with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel the Series belong to Joss Whedon et al.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Go check out the THWACK awards and the Bite Me awards.  The links are in my profile, and I'm nominated… yayness!  

Oh, and I know a lot of you are waiting for the Kate/Willow meeting scene, but that's not until chapter four, so bear with me while we have a sort of traveling chapter.

Also, it's 2 AM when I'm starting to write this… that does not bode well for sleep… and on a totally random note, my roommates this year abandoned me for rooming assignments next year, so I'm sad.  Review and cheer me up, please… *sniff sniff*.

Thine Own Self: Chapter Three

            Anni looked down at her hand, still uncertain of what had just happened.  Willow, still stunned herself, brought her arms to her stomach as Anni fell to the ground, completely drained of energy and power.

            "Um… Wes, Buffy, somebody," Willow yelled, her voice shaking a little.  "Anni's doing that fainting thing again, and it's making me feel kinda… chalky."

            Wes and Buffy came running into the room, followed shortly by Kendall, Joss, and Dawn.

            "What the hell happened?" Wes asked, kneeling next to his little sister and taking her pulse rather absentmindedly.

            "Chalky?" Buffy asked.

            "Pregnant woman, not all thesaurus-y," Willow said to Buffy before turning to the man she had come to love.  "I don't know what happened.  We were just… and then… poof."

            Everyone stared at Willow, who wasn't making sense at all.  The Wiccan took a deep breath.

            "Anni and I were practicing some simple fire starting techniques, and then her hand was touching my stomach, and she couldn't pull it off.  I could feel the magic running through her body, into mine, and into the baby's."

            Picking Anni up, Wes turned to Willow.  "Are you all right?" he asked her.  "Both of you?"  Holding Anni with one arm, he set his other hand tenderly on her stomach.

            She nodded, but said nothing.  Somehow, she thought that something very big had just happened here.

            "And you have no idea how or why it happened?" Wes asked.  His question hung in the air, unanswered.

            "Dammit," Lilah Morgan muttered as the power running through the shaman caused his body to become incinerated from the inside out.  "That's the third Shaman this week."  She turned to the minion standing in front of her.

            "Get me another Shaman," she said.

            "Miss Morgan," the law clerk stuttered a bit, "I don't think there's anything a Shaman can do."

            Lilah played with the idea of dismembering the underling, but discarded the idea.  She didn't have the time or inclination to train a new assistant.

            "I want that baby," Lilah said.  "That little _brat with her _ancient magics_ took him from me and gave him to my lover's girlfriend, and I want him back."_

            "That cannot happen," a voice said.  Lilah looked toward the pile of ashes on the floor, as the Shaman rose from them and returned to his previous form.

            She rolled her eyes.  Phoenix Shamans were always so dramatic.  "What do you mean it can't happen?" she asked him, the power she held as the sole head of Wolfram and Hart ringing in her voice, daring him to tell her that she could not have what she wanted.

            "The baby is no longer yours," he said.  "It's not simply a matter of reuniting mother and son in your womb.  I would have to take the child from his mother's womb, and that takes a deep magic."

            Lilah's eyes flamed when she heard his words.  "A baby can't just become someone else's," she told him icily, "and this company was led to believe that you do in fact have that kind of power."

            "We're not just dealing with natural forces anymore," he replied.  "The baby has a strong will to stay where he is, and somehow, he came by the magic needed to ward off my affront."

            Lilah cursed, looking downward at her blatantly flat stomach, wanting that red headed wench to suffer.  This was beyond personal.  This was war.

              Maddy let out a war cry, Hopie style, and the four young guys playing basketball turned to look her way.  Maddy smiled at them, thoroughly unabashed and full of candor.

            "I'm Maddy," she said, her accent more pronounced than usual.  The boys rolled their eyes at the very thought that some pretty little British girl might interrupt their game.  Maddy met their eyes clearly.  

"I'm Maddy," she said again, looking at each of them in turn, "and I'm going to kiss one of you now.  Perhaps all of you."  A thoughtful expression came across her face, and the twelve and thirteen year old boys couldn't help but think that it was a very nice face.

            "You," Maddy turned to a boy with dark hair and laughing eyes.  "You're first, Mister," she said.  Doing a very good Faith imitation, she walked toward him, eyes on the target.  When she reached him, she pushed him against the nearby fence, stood on her very tip-toes, and kissed him, hard on the mouth, closing her eyes and trying to picture the exact method she'd seen Faith and Lindsey use.  After a few long moments, she came up for air.

            The boy could hardly stare straight, and a dumb founded expression settled over his face as Maddy beamed at the other boys.  "You see," she said, "that wasn't so bad.  Who's next?"

            Clay, Connor and Nicolaa on his heels, cleared his throat from behind his little sister, his eyes bulging with shock at what she had just done.  Maddy turned to glance at him briefly before opening her mouth again.

            "Don't be ridiculous, Clay," she said, not sparing him more than the slightest moment's notice, "I can't kiss you next, you're my brother."  She turned her attention back to the rest of the boys.

            Nic, Connor, and Clay all began to speak at once.

            "Maddy, what are you doing?" Nic asked, a trace of laughter in her serious voice.

            "Madeline," Clay said, adopting his horrible scolding older brother voice and sending slight shivers down Maddy's back.  It was seldom a good thing when any of her many older brothers used that tone.

            "I'll kill each and every one of you," Connor said to the boys, his voice low.  The boys all stared at him, and Connor stared back, no evidence of joking in his voice.

            "Oh well.  It was worth a try," Maddy said to the boys, as always adapting quickly to the situation.  "Perhaps I'll see you all another time."  She hooked her arm carelessly through her brother's and began walking back toward the hotel.  

            She smiled up at him.  "How has your day been, Clay dear?"

            "Don't 'Clay dear' me," Clay grumbled.  His muscles relaxed when he felt Nic's hand on the back of his neck.  He looked at her, surprised.  Maddy sent Nic a grateful look, and the older girl shrugged, her hand tingling where it sat on Clay's warm neck.  Nicolaa had been keeping Maddy out of trouble for so long, it had become second nature.

            It was Nic who first realized that Connor wasn't with them.

            "Where'd Connor go?" she asked.

            Connor hadn't moved; he was still staring at the four boys, the threat of death very clear in his eyes.

            Anni's eyes fluttered open a bit.  "But it's my turn to flounce Joss," she mumbled.

            Standing next to Joss, Kendall muffled a quick bark of laughter.  Joss wished briefly that the non-slayer would stay asleep for a very, very long time.  After all, Anni's boyfriend would need someone to comfort him, and if that someone happened to be Joss, as far as the pariah-ed Potential was concerned, so be it.

            "Anni luv," Wes said, his voice gentle.  "Time to wake up, sweetheart."

            Anni's eyelids fluttered some more, and she continued muttering.  "Don't tell Wes that I have black underwear," she murmured.

            Wes stared at the women crowded into Anni's room.  "Who bought her black underwear?" he asked, the older brother look coming across his face again.

            "Not me," Buffy said.

            "Hey, I'm pregnant," Willow said, using her pregnancy as a convenient alibi for anything.

            Wes turned his gaze to Anya, who had entered the room the moment before.  "I don't wear underwear," she said brightly.  There was an awkward pause.  "It's hardly worth the monetary price.  Either no one sees it, and then the money is wasted, or someone does see it, but what they really want you to do is take it off.  Either way, it's not a sound business venture, and I personally don't care for the constriction."  The former vengeance demon smiled at everyone in the room, completely undisturbed by the way they were currently staring at her.

            Anni's eyes opened steadily for a moment, and she sat up in bed.  A wicked grin spread across her face.  "I'm coming," she said, her voice as dark and seductive as death itself, "and there's nothing any of you can do."  Without another word, her body went limp again, and she fell back onto the bed, her light brown hair bouncing slightly into her face.

            No one said a word.  Somehow, the situation did not seem promising.  Wes bent down and patted his sisters cheeks softly.

            "Anni," he said softly.  She didn't respond.  Losing his patience, he said, "Annabella."

            Anni's eyes opened slowly.  "I'm sorry," she said.

            "For what?" Wes asked.

            Anni sat up slowly and then shrugged.  "You tell me," she said.  After a moment, she noticed that everyone was standing in her room.  Everyone except…

            "Where's Chance?" she asked.

            Joss crept silently out the door, not wishing to stay in the same room with Anni a moment longer.  

            "I'll go find her," Kendall said, not wanting to leave Chance alone to Joss's mercies.  Just as she was leaving the room, Kendall turned around.  "And for the record, Anni," she said, laughter alive in her voice, "it's my turn to flounce Joss."

            "There will be no flounce-age," Buffy said, very little conviction in her voice.

            "It's always your turn to flounce Joss," Anni grumbled.

            Kendall grinned.  "I know," she called over her shoulder as she walked out the door, "and it always will be."

            Joss saw Chance, still sitting by herself on the kitchen floor.  The expression on her face softened.  Of all of the girls, Chance had always been her favorite.  Then they'd learned that Chance was different.  Special.  Something that everyone knew Joss was not.

            "Oh, hey Joss," Chance said softly.

            "Hey Chance," Joss returned cautiously, trying to push her resentment of the younger girl out of her mind.  "Been getting any of those oh-look-at-me-I'm-so-special flashes lately?"  Inwardly, Joss cringed.  She hadn't wanted to say that at all.

            Chance didn't reply, and she struggled to keep a blank face when she saw the image of a lake flash before her eyes.

            The sun was starting to set, and as Dakota thought back over her day, she looked out at the water silently.  For a moment, she remembered her mother, but then that memory rippled away, like the tiny waves in the water in front of her.

            Standing up and stretching lazily, Kody grinned wickedly and pulled off her top, throwing it to the ground.  She had others.  After the shopping and shoplifting spree she'd gone on today, she had three others just like it.

            She peeled off her jeans and dove into the lake, her arms pulling her powerfully through the water.  There was no reason for her to be swimming, naked in a lake by herself, but Dakota Kincaide cared little for reason.  She did what she wanted to do, when she wanted to do it.

            And if the world didn't like that, as far as she was concerned, the world could go to hell.

            "I don't want you to go, Aunt Faith," Hopie said, her bottom lip protruding slightly.  "You just got back and we haven't played battle or spar yet or anything."

            Faith grinned at the little girl and picked her up.  "I have to go and see if this girl is the one," Faith tried to explain reasonably.

            Hopie frowned thoughtfully.  "I know," she said finally, "but wouldn't it be better if you and Uncle Lindsey just stayed here and had lots of grown-up wrestling time at night, and then you could play with me during the day.  We could play care bears.  Daddy could be Grumpy cause he's broooooooooooody, and I could be Lotsa Luck Bear, and you could be Slayer Bear."

            Faith lifted her left eyebrow slightly.  "Slayer Bear?"

            Hopie nodded, seriously.  "For when the demons attack the Care Bears," she replied.  "There has to be a Slayer Bear."

            Faith pretended to consider it.  "When I get back," she said, "we'll play, and I'll be any bear you want me to be."

            "Uncle Lindsey too?" Hopie asked.  Faith nodded, and Lindsey, coming into the room, groaned.

            Hopie ignored him.  She looked at Faith and then buried her head briefly in her champion's shoulder.  She took a deep breath.

            "I'm gonna lose a tooth while you're gone," she said. 

            "Which one?" Lindsey asked.  

            "My left fang," Hopie replied.

            "You don't have fangs, Hopie," Faith said, setting the little girl down.

            Hopie shrugged.  Somehow, that just didn't seem important.

            As she drove, Caleb in his car seat, asleep but never quiet, Kate's mind drifted over the past few years, staying for long moments over each of Cale's milestones.  He'd been such a good baby, so happy.  Even when he'd been teething his sharp little fang teeth, Cale had never had long crying fits like other children.

            "Grrrrrrrr," the little boy growled in his sleep.  "Gonna eat you."  Kate's eyes opened widely as she listened to her little boy growling.  

            "Gonna eat you, Mr. Hotdog," he said.

            "You're more than just a balance," Kate said to him.  "You're a little boy."  She wondered what Angel's son was like.  After all, he and Cale were the same age.

            The boys stared at Connor, terrified.  Connor said nothing, and somehow, that was all that needed to be said to get his point across.

            "We won't kiss her anymore," one of the boys promised vehemently.  "Ever again."

            All of the boys except for the one who had already kissed Maddy nodded vehemently.  

            Connor glared at them for a few more seconds and turned to walk back to the hotel.

TBC… okay guys, I know there are some things you're waiting for, like Faith/Dakota interaction, Wes/fang gang interaction, some more fluffy time, the Willow/Kate meeting, but it will all come in due time.  

And don't worry if the Anni thing confuses you now.  It's supposed to… I promise it will be neat when you see where I'm going with this.

*Pathetic look* It's 3:30 in the morning.  PLEASE REVIEW!!! I wasn't planning on updating until Wednesday, but there was such a great response last chapter that I stayed up late tonight.  The more reviews, the sooner you guys all get to see what you're waiting for.    


	4. Quack Quack Grrrr

DISCLAIMER: I own Anni, Hopie, Chance, Kendall, Joss, Maddy, Nicolaa, Colletee, Clay, Cale, and Dakota.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Okay, responding to a few reviews again.

mcat – If you'll let me know which of the originals you get confused, I'll see what I can do to help you out there in terms of defining characteristics.  Thanks for reading.

Maya- You know, I think you're right about the Wes 'hell' thing.  I hadn't thought of it.  Most of the time when I have him say it, it's Anni involved, and I feel like going into older brother mode might change him enough that he would say it more than usual, but prob not as much as he has been.  I'll try to watch that.  Thanks for reviewing and keep it up!

Lorelai Anastasia- Thank you for your concern over my sleep… I'm going to pretend like it's not 1 AM now.

Imzadi- You'll get the answers to both of your questions… eventually.

AND TO EVERYONE WANTING FLUFF- I'll try to put bits of it into each chapter, as much as I can while still keeping the plot on pace.

AND NOW THE STORY

Thine Own Self: Chapter Four

            Faith looked out the window of the plane, her mind wandering and her stomach lurching.  She'd thrown up the past three mornings, and she knew it was because of stress.  Still, her stomach didn't much care for airplanes, and she concentrated on looking at the clouds so as to avoid losing her breakfast.

  Next to her, Lindsey slept, his hair a little tussled from the flight.  He'd been working around the clock trying to find any information he could on the missing demi-slayer.  Faith figured he needed a little rest.

            Staring out the window, she could feel his presence to her left, and it comforted her even as it caused a thrill to run through her body.  Watching the clouds pass by, she pushed the thought out of her head that she didn't deserve him.  She pushed thoughts of the place where she had grown up, the abusive mother, and the father she had never met out of her mind.

            Suddenly, she felt the familiar nagging fear that somewhere this girl who was literally a part of her was stepping over broken beer bottles, sneaking out of the house at age fourteen because it was the only way to keep her head above water.

            She felt Lindsey shift in his sleep, and she pushed the worry from her thoughts and laid her head on his shoulder, listening to his heart beat as she too fell asleep.

            Dakota woke up with the sun, the lake beside her sparkling.  She stretched lazily and rolled over, completely undisturbed by the fact that she was wearing very little in the way of clothing.  She stood up and grabbed her clothes off of the ground, putting them on in no great hurry.

            She heard an approving whistle from her left, and she simply ignored it, zipping her pants up and throwing her shirt over her head.

            She felt his presence before she saw him.  "Dakota Kincaide," he said, and she almost gagged at nasal quality of his voice.  She could tell without looking that he was leering at her in that stuck-up-trust-fund-baby way she had hated since the moment she'd entered her first boarding school.

            She ignored him.  

            "Don't be that way, baby," he said to her, grabbing her shoulder.  She didn't even bother to meet his eyes.

            "I'm not being any way, _baby_," she said with easy sarcasm on the last word.  He squeezed her shoulder a bit.

            "I wouldn't do that if I were you," she told him, completely at ease, her voice's low pitch the only cue to her annoyance.

            "Do what?" he asked, leaning toward her.  She recognized him as the child of one of her father's many social acquaintances.  "I know all about you, Kincaide.  The bad girl who daddy ships off to one school after another because he doesn't have time for you."

            Kody sent him a deadly, lazy grin.  

            "I know," he continued, moving closer to her, "that a girl who sleeps outdoors almost completely naked is asking for something.  I know you want it.  It'll feel good, baby."

            Kody looked him in the eyes and lifted her knee sharply.  She had impeccable aim. 

            "You know," she said, her tone still casual.  "You're right.  That did feel good."

            As he writhed on the ground, she simply picked up her bag and walked off.  She didn't bother to climb up the trellis when she reached her houses 

Instead, she shoved her hands in the pockets of her jeans and walked in the front door.  She wasn't in the least surprise when the butler informed her, unspoken censure clear in his eyes, that her father had already left for an important meeting.

            Kody scoffed.  Kincaides didn't have important meetings.  As far as she could tell, her father played with his inherited money all day, cushioned by the large amount her mother had left them, and then went to play golf with someone else who had a similar occupation.  His version of an important meeting was usually either a blonde socialite or an eight a.m. tee time.

            Lindsey awoke as the plane landed to find Faith asleep, laying across her armrest, her head on his shoulders.  A small smile of pleasure spread over Lindsey's face.  The slayer looked so peaceful when she slept.  He nudged her gently, hating to bring her out of sleep, but knowing that the plane was getting ready to de-board.

            Faith murmured grumpily and opened her eyes.

            As soon as the two of them stepped off of the plane, a shiver went through Faith, and she knew that this girl would be the one they were looking for.

            "I just want to thank you," Kody heard a voice say behind her.  She turned around to face the blonde she had named Astro.

            Astro flipped her hair over her shoulder.  "For making this so easy," she continued.  Kody's eyebrow raised just slightly.  "For making it so easy for your father to agree to that Swiss boarding school," the woman clarified.

            To Astro's surprise, Dakota let out a low chuckle.  After a moment, Kody spoke.  "Lady," she said, "with me, nothing is easy unless I want it to be easy.  What I want to happen, happens.  If I want something, I take it.  If I don't want something, I get rid of it, and honestly, you're getting on just about my last nerve."

            Astro's mouth dropped open.  

            Suddenly, a flash came that knocked Dakota to the floor, as she saw things for the first time through another person's eyes.  She blinked once, slowly, and then Astro's perfectly grating face came into focus and Kody was no longer looking at black lingerie.

            Dakota, deciding that she must have ingested some of that lake water, stood up and narrowed her eyes just slightly at the blonde woman.

            "You know, Rover," she said, drawing out the dog's name, "you don't want to cross me.  Believe me on that one."

            "I thought I was Astro," the blonde said hautily.

            Dakota laughed a short laugh.  "Well, Rover," she said, "I guess you've been demoted."

            Chance squealed and the older girls laughed.  Anni smiled proudly as she displayed her new black bra and panties for the girls.

            "Where did you get these?" Dawn asked, curiously.

            Anni smiled.  "Wes bought them for me," she said.  The others stared at her in disbelief.

            "He was so uncomfortable going into Victoria's Secret that he just gave the clerk his credit card and told me to meet him in the book store when I was finished," she clarified.  The others smiled knowingly.  Wes wasn't the type to want to even hear his sister mention the word 'bra.'

            "Can I try it on?" Chance asked.

            Anni shrugged.  "Sure," she replied.

            Chance put it on over her clothes.  Kendall snorted.  Chance was so obviously twelve sometimes.

            The door to the room Anni and Dawn shared with Chance opened slowly, and all of the girls jumped guiltily.  Joss was standing in the doorway.

            "Oh, hi Joss," Dawn said, no enthusiasm in her voice.

            "Hi," Joss replied cautiously.  She never got to be part of their fun.

            There was an awkward pause as Joss closed the door behind her.  Chance squirmed, trying to unclasp the black bra, but she couldn't manage to reach it and instead ended up doing a ridiculous looking dance.  All of the girls, including Joss, started cracking up.  

Out in the hallway, Wes looked suspiciously toward the room.  Willow's voice entered his mind.

            _Don't look so grim, Papa Bear, she said playfully._

            _What do you think they're doing in there? Wes asked, his mind voice suspicious._

            _Having an orgy, Willow replied.  Wes shot her a censuring look.  _

            "I'm pregnant," she reminded him out loud by way of an excuse.  Wes tried not to grin at her.

            "I noticed," he whispered back, his voice husky with a British accent.

            "Hopie, sweetie, did you just say something?" Cordy asked.  If she had learned on thing from her experiences with Hopie, it was to never underestimate the child.

            Hopie grinned and nodded.

            "What?" Angel asked.

            Hopie shrugged.  "I dunno," she said giggling.  Then, she turned and walked out of the room and into the bathroom.  She shut the door and climbed onto the counter.  She opened her mouth and looked at her reflection in the mirror, carefully examining her teeth.

            "They don't look loose to me," she said out loud.  Tentatively, she brought her hand to her mouth and tried to wiggle the front teeth.  They weren't loose at all.

            Hopie frowned at the mirror.  Stupid dentist, she thought.

            Angel and Cordelia both stared at the closed bathroom door, chuckling when they heard Hopie's pronouncement that her teeth sure didn't look loose.

            "How was she?" Angel asked, well aware that Hopie hated anything that even somewhat resembled a doctor.

            Cordy rolled her eyes.  "Between the war cry and her announcement that perhaps she wouldn't use her crossbow on the tooth fairy, I think the dentist was sufficiently wigged out."

            "And you loved it," Angel said, a small smile playing around the tips of his mouth.  

            "Just a little," Cordy replied.  "I've been thinking," she said suddenly, "about setting a date."

            Angel's face softened, and for a moment, the vampire looked vulnerable and boyishly excited.

            "And?" he asked.

            "I think it should be soon," Cordy replied.  "As soon as Faith and Lindsey get this demi-slayer thing worked out.  I want them at the wedding, though how I came to consider Faith the Vampire Slayer as one of my closest friends…"

            She trailed off.

            Angel kissed her.  "Stranger things have happened," he whispered, bringing his lips just off of hers.

            Out just in front of the hotel, Connor caught up with Maddy, Nic, and Clay.  Content that he'd scared the boys away from Maddy, he turned his attention toward glaring at the younger girl.

            Maddy laughed in his face.  "Okay," she said good naturedly, "let me get this straight.  I can't kiss you, but I can't kiss anyone else either?"  She rolled her eyes.

            Connor nodded seriously.

            "That plan works for me," Clay put in.

            The guys stared at Nic, who remained suspiciously silent.

            Maddy got a very serious expression on her face.  "If I don't learn how to kiss like Faith and Buffy do," she said, her reason strong in her mind, "then I'll never learn how to be a good slayer."

            "That's not true," Nicolaa said.  "Kissing has nothing to do with slaying, Maddy."

            Maddy crossed her hands over her chest.  "Uh-huh," she said, clearly not believing Nic.  "Then what's with the lip lockage between you and my brother?  Huh?"

            Nicolaa blushed.  "That," she said, sending a glare at Clay, "is entirely his fault.  He's really incorrigible you know."

            "Yup," Maddy replied, "but you kissed back, and you kissed him exactly like Faith kisses Lindsey and like Buffy kisses Spike.  Coincidence?  I think not."

            Connor didn't say a word, but he wondered for a second about Maddy's reasoning.  Did that reasoning reply to the other Potentials?  To shy Colette who barely ever said a word?  To Kendall, whom Dawn had accused him of ogling?  God forbid, to… Anni?  He shook his head.  Anni, whom he considered his own personal younger cousin, was far too young to be doing such a thing.  He thought about the teenaged werewolf who was Anni's boyfriend, and his glare intensified.

            Ever since the Potentials had come to California, Connor had been surrounded by girls, and his life had become very complicated.

            He sighed a very aggrieved sigh.  

            Clay, torn between testing Maddy's theory with Nicolaa and killing his little sister, echoed Connor's sentiments.

            As they walked into the hotel, they heard another very aggrieved little sigh.  They all looked down.  Hopie held her arms up to Connor and he picked her up.

            "You're brooooooody," she said, her face serious.  "I'm brooooody too."

            "I'm not brooding," Connor said darkly.

            Hopie nodded seriously.  "Are too, My Connor," she replied, laying her head on his chest.

            "Why are you broody?" Clay asked the little girl, tweaking the ends of her hair.

            "Because," Hopie replied, "my teeth are mean."  The others looked at her, completely bewildered.  

            "Whatcha mean?" Maddy asked the younger girl.  Hopie looked at her, a very serious expression on her face.

            "They won't fall out," she replied.  "Not even if I try to wiggle them."

            Finally, understanding dawned on Nicolaa.  "Oh," she said, "you want to lose a tooth, so that the tooth fairy will come?"  Hopie nodded.

            "Tooth fairy?" Connor asked, completely bewildered.  The others stared at him, horrified.

            "You don't know about the tooth fairy?" Maddy asked him.

            "Some kind of magical enamel being?" Connor guessed.

            "Not exactly," Clay replied.

            "What kind of childhood did you _have_?  Everyone knows about the tooth fairy." Maddy said, considering kissing him again just to make him mad.  Connor didn't reply.

            "My Connor," Hopie said.  She waited.

            Connor looked down at her.  "Okay," he said, "now I'm brooding."

            "Me too," Hopie said.  Together, brother and sister brooded.

            Faith looked at the massive house in front of her in disbelief.  "This is where the girl lives?" she asked.  All this time, she'd been picturing the demi-Faith living in the same kind of hell hole she'd grown up in.  

              Lindsey looked at her, his face serious.  "This doesn't mean she doesn't need you, Faith," he told his wife softly.  "And it doesn't mean that we don't need her.  She's a Potential, and more than that, I think she really might be…" he trailed off, not sure how to describe Dakota's relationship to Faith.

            "Me," Faith replied.  "A fourteen year old me."

            Lindsey shrugged.  Faith took a deep breath and grinned at the Gargoyle on the front of the house.

            "Why are you smiling at that?" he asked her curiously.

            She shrugged, hooking her thumbs in the waistbands of her jeans.  "I like it," she replied.  "Kind of endearing in an ugly monster sort of way."

            "Kind of like Connor?" Lindsey joked.  Faith poked him in the ribs, but she couldn't help but smile.

            Finally, someone answered the door.  "Can I help you?" the butler asked, and Faith's skin crawled at the snooty tone of his voice.

            "You know, Jeevs," she drawled, "I think you can."

            "My word," the man exclaimed, his mouth falling open.

            Faith raised her eyebrow slightly in a questioning expression.  "What?" she asked.

            "For a moment," the butler replied, "I thought Miss Kody had grown up over night."

            "Kody?" Faith questioned, her eyes meeting Lindseys.

            "One of many names I answer to," a smooth voice answered from behind the butler.  The butler stepped aside, and Faith gasped as she looked at Kody, who did indeed look exactly as she had at that age.

            They'd found her, she thought, her heart beating faster.  This was the girl they'd been looking for.  Faith and Lindsey exchanged a private look.

            Dakota stared at the woman in front of her for a moment, taking in the similarities in their appearances.  Faith was more muscular, her body more developed.  He features were sharper than Kody's, but very similar.  Kody looked Faith in the eye, and it was like looking into a mirror.

            Then Dakota turned her attention to Lindsey, and a slow smile spread over his face.  "Well," she said finally, "it looks like I have good taste."

            "Who are you?" the butler questioned.

            "We're here to talk to Mr. Kincaide," Lindsey clarified.  "We represent a small academy in California who takes girls of Kody's abilities to train and mold."  

            Kody's eyes raised.  Another boarding school?  Hell no, she thought.

            Out loud, she laughed.  She sauntered past Faith and out the door without saying another word.  Faith put her hand out to stop the girl, and Kody's eyes flashed.

            "You wanna dance with me?" she asked, the amusement and threat equally clear in her voice.  Faith, suddenly feeling a bit faint, said nothing, and Kody turned and walked out the door.

            Faith sat down on the ground quickly. 

            "What was that?" Lindsey asked her.

            "Me or her?" Faith replied.

            "You," Lindsey clarified, rubbing her shoulders softly.

            "I haven't been feeling too well lately," Faith replied.  "No big."

            "And her?" Lindsey questioned.

            "That's just Miss Kody," the butler replied, still staring at Faith.  "You'll have to excuse her, her father has always been rather preoccupied and…"

            Faith interrupted him, answering Lindsey's question.  "That," she said smiling a rue smile, "is me at fourteen."

            Finally, Wes couldn't stand it any longer.  He opened the door to the room, expecting to catch the girls doing something unsavory at the very least.  They all smiled at him innocently.  Willow sent Wes and I-told-you-so look.

            "Well, yes," he said stalling.  "I was just coming to let you know that Jordy called earlier, Anni," he said, realizing that it was true and he'd forgotten to give her the message.

            "Thanks, Wes," Anni replied, smiling up at him sweetly, batting her eyelashes.

            He looked at each of the girls suspiciously in turn.  Chance, the bra now safely in her back pocket, was blushing furiously.

            "I know that something's going on here," he told them slowly.  He turned his attention to Anni, who continued to smile at him.  "You might as well confess," she said.

            "We were trying on bras," Anni told her older brother, the bright-eyed expression never faltering on her face.

            Wesley blanched.  "I think I have some research to do," he mumbled, exiting the room quickly.

            Willow smiled at the girls.  "Did you show them the pink lacy one I found?" Willow asked.  Anni nodded wickedly.

            "I love underwear," Willow said, looking down at her huge stomach with a good-natured grin.  "But none of my cool stuff fits right now."

            Joss put her hand on Willow's stomach, half expecting something special to happen like had happened to Anni.  Nothing happened.  Joss dropped her hand and mumbled a hateful goodbye as she left the room.

            "You guys should be nicer to Joss," Willow said once the girl was gone.

            "We were being nice to her," Kendall said, "and now she's all Joss-y again."  The message in her voice was crystal clear: Joss was long overdue for some actual flounce-age.

            "Which of you guys are going on patrol with Buffy tonight?" Willow asked, changing the subject.

            "I'm going with Buffy," Chance said.  "Kendall went last night."

            Willow looked at Dawn.  

            "Count me out," the girl said.  "I'm content to not get vampire dust in my nose if I don't have to."

"I think I'm going to patrol with Jordy," Anni said casually.

            Willow raised her eyebrow at Anni.  "Really?" she asked her.

            Anni nodded.  "You think someone with full slayer powers and a werewolf can't handle a few vamps by themselves?" she asked the witch.

            "I think," Willow replied, "that Wes would send you to some kind of convent."

            Anni's eyes twinkled.  "What Wesley doesn't know," she said, "won't hurt him."

            Willow smiled back.  "You have to take someone else with you," she replied.  "Spike would probably go, just in case you guys need some help."

            Anni readily agreed.

            Oz looked at his cousin.  "You and Anni are going patrolling?" he asked, no expression in his voice.

            "Yup," Jordy replied.

            "Company?" Oz asked.

            Jordy shrugged.  Oz shrugged in return.  Jordy shrugged only his left shoulder.  Oz nodded.

            "I could go for patrolling," he said.

            If Jordy had been more into audio-activity, he would have sighed.  Instead, his expression stayed exactly neutral, just as his cousin's did.

            "Mommy?" Cale said loudly.  Kate, concentrating on the road, didn't turn to look at him as she responded.

            "What is it, baby?" she replied.

            "Not a baby," he informed her.  "Duck.  Quack-Quack."

            Kate tried not to smile.  "A duck, huh?" she asked him.

            "Hungry duck," he replied.  He held up his hands in front of him like claws and he growled a very high pitched baby growl.

            "Grrrr.  Quack Quack.  Grrrrr." He burst into joyous little boy giggles.

            "A duck doesn't say 'grrrrrr,' Cale," his mother told him.

            "Monster duck!" Cale squealed gleefully, fully delighted by the idea.  "Quack-Grrrr-Quack-Quack!"

            "Not a monster," Kate said firmly, not talking to the child anymore.  "Never a monster."

            By nightfall, the two of them would arrive in Sunnydale, and she would take to this witch and figure out what exactly could be done to help her little boy.

TBC… Okay, I know there's a lot going on in these chapters, but once Kate gets to Sunnydale and now that Faith and Dakota have met, it should get easier pretty soon.  I know this is confusing… if you have questions, ask.  Up next, Cale and Kate meet the Sunnydale gang, Spike goes patrolling with Anni and Jordy, Kendall flounces Joss, and the first Dakota/Faith confrontation…

REVIEW!!!    


	5. Duct Tape

DISCLAIMER: I own Hopie, Anni, Maddy, Clay, Nicolaa, Colette, Joss, Chance, Kendall, Cale, and Dakota.  All other characters associated with BtVS and AtS belong to Joss Whedon et al.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Just for the record, Dakota lives in Connecticut, not England.  The next couple of chapters should let us see some fun stuff, and then, the Anni stuff will begin to make sense.

Thine Own Self: Chapter Five

            "Where have you been all day?" a voice whispered in Colette's ear.  Colette turned around to face Nicolaa.  She smiled tentatively at the older girl.

            "I took a walk," Colette whispered back.  "And then I helped Lorne organize his vintage records for a while."

            "Did you sing for him?" Nic whispered back curiously.  

            Colette shook her head, thoroughly mortified at the very idea.  "Why are we whispering?" she asked.

            Nic gestured toward the next room, where Connor and Hopie had been brooding all day, until the little girl had finally fallen asleep, lying on Connor's stomach while her brother stared at the ceiling, brooding.

            "The little brooder fell asleep," Nic whispered back.  "The big brooder is working on setting an Olympic record for brooding."

            "Not going to happen," Cordy commented, coming into the room.  "I'm pretty sure Angel brooded for over a century straight once."  Cordy tiptoed into the room and picked the sleeping Hopie up off of Connor's stomach.  He didn't move, the sullen expression staying on his face.

            "Still brooding?" Cordy asked him, whispering as Hopie murmured, asleep in Cordy's arms.

            Connor gave her a look, and Cordy shrugged, but a moment later, her body stiffened almost imperceptibly.  Connor, making use of his super sensing skills, noticed immediately.

            "What do you see?" he asked the seer.

            Colette and Nic looked on in interest.  They'd never actually seen Cordy have a vision before.

             Hopie's eyes opened.  "Vampires," she said, rubbing the sleep out of her eye using her entire fist.  She grinned.  "Lots of them.  One of them is dressed up like a clown."

            "Are you sure you weren't just dreaming?" Nicolaa asked the little girl indulgently.

            Cordy sighed.  "Sadly," she said, "she wasn't.  I definitely saw clown-vamp too, and let me tell you, a vamp with one of those red noses and those big shoes, major with the freaky there."  

            "Slay time?" Hopie asked, stifling another yawn.

            "Slay time for Daddy and Connor," Cordy replied.  "Bed time for you."

            "The Powers that Be don't think it's bed time," Hopie said, her eyes opened wide.  "Cause if they did, the wouldna sent me the vision."

            Cordelia sent a vexed look at the ceiling.  Somehow, the Powers never seemed to care if it was after nine o'clock or not.  Hopie sent Cordy a triumphant smile.  

            "Go tell Daddy what you saw and then put on your pajamas," Cordy told the little girl.  Hopie looked as if she was going to argue, but decided better of it.  She scampered off to inform Angel of the vision she and her momma had shared.

            Cordy turned to the girls.  "You two had better saddle up," she said.  "With Faith gone, you girls need to be on your toes."  She paused for a moment.  "Where's Maddy?"

            Nic couldn't help herself.  She giggled.  "She and Clay are having a little conversation."

            "About what?" Cordy asked.

            "About the value of not throwing random guys against the closest wall and kissing them," Nicolaa replied.  "It took Clay all day before he could manage to put together a full older brotherly lecture without needing to punch a wall."

            "Who did she kiss?" Cordy asked.

            "Who didn't she?" Connor said darkly.  

            After a moment of awkward silence, Connor and the two Potentials went to stock up on weapons.

            Anni and Chance considered their choices of weapons carefully.  Finally, Anni stuffed some stakes into the waistband of her jeans and checked herself out in the mirror.  She smiled.  Chance picked up a glaive and considered it carefully, a funny half smile coming across her face.

            "Did the glaive say something amusing?" Anni asked her.  

Chance shook her head.  "Nope," she said.  "Just thinking about Kendall."

            Anni grinned shamelessly.  She didn't know exactly what Kendall had in store for Joss, but at lunch when Joss had subtly commented that Kendall was starting to get too old to be called, Kendall had just smiled sweetly in return, not even bothering to correct the younger girl.  Knowing Kendall, Anni knew that meant that the brunette was planning something, and something devious at that.

            When Anni heard the doorbell ring, she made a mad rush for the door, and cursed under her breath when Wesley somehow managed to make it there first.  He opened the door and sent a chilling smile at Oz and Jordy, narrowing his eyes just a bit in a look that many people would have considered dangerous.  "Hello, Jordy," he said.  "Oz."

            Oz and Jordy nodded identical little half nods in Wesley's general direction.  

            "And what occasion brings you here?" Wes asked, shooting a suspicious look at Anni.

            Jordy didn't so much as bat an eyelash.  

            "Don't get your panties in a twist," another British voice said.  "Just so happens I promised I'd take Wolfie Junior there and Miss Annabella trick or treating tonight."

            "Spike," Wes said, gritting his teeth, "it's not Halloween."

            "And generally, we prefer canine-prone to 'Wolfie,'" Oz said, no tone entering his voice.

            Spike smiled an evil smile that made Chance, who'd just walked into the room with Buffy, go weak at the knees.  "That's too bad then," Spike said, "on both counts.  Ready kiddies?"  

            Anni grinned at Jordy.  Jordy grinned at Anni.  Spike frowned and wondered what exactly he'd gotten himself into.

            Sensing something, Oz turned around slowly, and he found himself staring at a frowning blonde woman for a split second before a tiny whirlwind on feet collided full speed into his legs.  He looked down.

            "Up," a little voice demanded imperiously.

            "I live to serve," Oz replied, picking the little boy up with an easiness that surprised everyone but Jordy.

            The boy's mother came into the light.  "Cale," she said.  "Come back to Mommy, baby."

            Cale, completely ignoring his mother, looked at Oz and growled happily, a tiny little baby growl that reminded Oz of the way Jordy had been when he was a toddler.  Oz just looked at the kid, and Cale started cracking up.

            "You're funny," he said, snuggling up to Oz.

            "I get that a lot," he replied.  "I'm Oz."

            "I'm a monster duck.  Quack.  Grrrrrr.  Quack."  Cale burst into another round of giggles.

            "Impressive," Oz said, smiling softly at the little boy.

            "I'm sorry," Kate said, "he had a long nap on the drive up here, so he's kind of wired.  I'm…"

            "Kate," Wes said, surprise registering in his voice.  She looked at him, and recognition escaped her.

            Buffy narrowed her eyes, and then recognition hit her.  "I've met you before," she said slowly.  

            Kate looked at her and nodded.  "I believe I was threatening to lock Angel up in a sun-lit cell at the time," Kate replied, her voice soft, without the hard edge it had once had.

            Spike smiled.  "Locking up good old Peaches?  I think I like this girl," he said.

            "I don't," Buffy said plainly.  "What are you doing here?"

            Oz tickled Cale's ribs slightly, and as the little boy burst into delighted laughter, his fangs popped up, and his face morphed ever so slightly.  

            Everyone in the room stared at Cale.

            Kate sighed.  "That's what I'm doing here," she said, her eyes pleading.

            "I should have learned a long time ago that no two year old responds well to being tickled," Oz commented wryly, casting a knowing look at Jordy, who responded by blinking just a bit more slowly than usual.

            "I was told there was a woman here named Willow," Kate said.  "I think she can help us, help him."

            Concern crossed Wes's face when he heard her speak Willow's name.

Spike leaned over to take a closer look at the toddler, but Cale, suddenly shy, buried his face in Oz's chest.  Spike shrugged.

"Well, children," he said to Anni and Jordy, "are we going to go on patrol or aren't we?"

Anni and Jordy exchanged a silent look. 

"Go ahead," a voice said from the stairs.

Anni grinned at Willow.  "Thanks," she said.  Wes, sufficiently distracted and confused by everything that was going on around him, simply stood there, motionless, as Anni placed a quick kiss on his cheek.

"See you later, Wes," she said, and in the next instant, she, Jordy, and Spike had squeezed past Kate and Oz in the doorway, and the three of them were walking toward the cemetery.

"Coming?" Jordy asked Oz on the way out.

Cale buried his head further into Oz's chest, and Oz heard a very muffled version of the monster duck.

"Guess not," Oz replied, the corners of his lips turning up slightly.

"I can take him," Kate said, anxious that a stranger was holding her son.

Oz stared at her eyes for a moment.  "I've got him," he said.  Kate expected him to say something else, but he didn't.

"Are we still going patrolling?" Chance asked Buffy.  Buffy, her eyes locked on Kate, shook her head.

"Tomorrow night?" she asked the girl.  Chance shrugged.

"Slaying them tomorrow will be pretty much the same," she said.  "Can I borrow that new nail polish of yours?"

"The guilt trip borrow-request," Buffy said.  "I know it well.  Go ahead and use it."

Stepping inside the house, Kate looked discretely from Buffy to Chance.  There was something very odd going on here.

Buffy didn't mince words.  "She's me," she said without preamble.  "Only younger."

Kate had to restrain her former policewoman instincts, but she managed to keep from asking any questions.  She turned to the woman on the stairs, and some surprise registered in her eyes.

"I'm pregnant," Willow announced with a smile, as if maybe that hadn't been made obvious by her bulging stomach.  "And, I'm Willow."  She walked toward Wes, who was still oscillating toward frowning at the spot where Anni, Jordy, and Spike had last been seen, and examining Kate closely.

_Don't worry_, Willow told him mentally.  _She doesn't feel very threat-y to me, and Anni wasn't wearing the black underwear._

For a moment, Wes thanked heaven for small favors.  Then a horrid thought occurred to him.  _Anni__ hasn't been talking to Anya lately, has she?_

Willow tried not to giggle, knowing that no one else in the room knew what was going on with their private conversation.

"Tell me what you can," Willow said to Kate simply, "and I'll see if I can help."

As Oz shut the door behind Kate and came into the room holding Cale, Chance slipped off to go find Kendall and tell her what was going on.

Kendall dusted her hands off and stood back to admire her handiwork.  "See," she said to Joss, "now that wasn't so hard, now was it?"

Joss glared at her, but she didn't reply.  Kendall's grin widened.  The piece of duct tape over her mouth had been a nice finishing touch.  Joss, her feet dangling off the ground, firmly duct taped to the inside of the door to their room, glared at Kendall.

Joss's glaring was interrupted when the door swung open, inwardly.  Kendall waved goodbye to Joss as the door swung on its hinges, hiding the outraged Potential from view.

Chance started talking quickly.  "Kendall," she said.  "You'll never guess what happened."

Kendall smirked.  "Neither," she said, "will you."  Joss, still duct taped firmly to the back of the door, said nothing.

"Well, Mr. McDonald," Mr.  Kincaide said.

"Lindsey," Lindsey corrected firmly, sending the man a charming smile.

"Lindsey," Dakota's father conceded.  "Your school certainly seems to be the type of environment that Kody could benefit from."

Lindsey nodded.  "Our facilities are state of the art, our teacher to student ratio is extremely high, and our admissions are extremely selective," he said, in his own lawyer way, not exactly lying about anything.

Faith tried not to grin, but she couldn't help herself.  Mr. Kincaide had yet to spend any duration of time whatsoever looking at Faith.  All his attention was concentrated on Lindsey.

"When can you take her?" he asked.  Faith gritted her teeth at this man, his dark hair the same shade as his daughter's.  He was speaking like Dakota was a chore, something he couldn't wait to get rid of.

"That anxious to be rid of me, Daddy?" a voice asked lazily from the doorway.

"It's not polite to eavesdrop," Kincaide remonstrated gently.

"Well, there's that," Kody admitted, "but you know, it's also not polite to shove your daughter into the first person's hands who will take her off yours just because you're horny and your flavor of the month wants me gone."  Dakota grinned at Lindsey, who was staring at her carefully.  He couldn't believe how much she looked like Faith.

"Hi," Dakota commented, raising her eyebrow.

"Dakota," her father said, his voice deep and serious, "if you hadn't gotten kicked out of the last five schools, we wouldn't be going through this right now."

"We aren't going through anything," Kody corrected, her voice staying deceptively nonchalant.  "I'm going up to my nice, big room, I'm going to throw all of my nice, expensive clothes into one large, overpriced duffel bag, and I am going to leave you and Rover and whatever the hell Lassie or Benji you're cheating on her with, all to yourselves."

Faith took a step toward her.  "Dakota," she said.  "We need to talk."

Before Faith could sway a word, Kody sauntered out of the room.

"I'm sorry," Mr. Kincaide started to apologize.  Faith didn't bother to stay and listen.  This time, she followed Dakota, even as the girl left the house and walked steadily toward the street.  

Faith caught up with her without even breaking into a run.  "We need to talk," she repeated.

Dakota laughed a short laugh and tried to move away from the slayer.  "Hey, Shiloh," she said, pulling out another dog's name, "we don't need to talk about anything."

Before she saw the movement, Dakota found herself firmly pinned to the wall surrounding her yard.

"You're right," Faith said.  "We don't need to talk.  I need to talk.  You listen."  Kody, considering the situation, glared at Faith but found that, though she was in no pain, she couldn't move.  There was more to this woman who looked like her than she had thought.

Dakota glared at Faith.

Faith glared back.  "Hate to break it to you, peaches," Faith said, "but you're not the big dog in these parts anymore."

Dakota smiled.  We'll see about that, she thought.  "You wanted to say something?" Dakota asked her, her voice deceptively calm.  Faith nodded, and knowing better than to release the girl, she started talking.

"And then Connor and I were brooding for a long time and then I fell asleep and then there was this vision that Momma had too and there were lots of vampires, and they were all going 'grrrrrr' and there was this guy and he was screaming, and one of the vampires was a clown and my teeth are stupid."  Hopie took a deep breath as she finished the long run-on sentence.

"Your teeth are stupid?" Angel asked.

"One of the vampires was a clown?" Gunn asked.

Hopie nodded, poking her teeth with her hand.  "Stupid," she confirmed to a bewildered Gunn and Angel.  "And Uncle Gunn, yes he was a clown.  Can I go with you guys?  Please, Daddy?  Please, Uncle Gunn?"

"What did your mother say?" Angel asked, trying not to stare directly into the batting eyelashes.   

"She said I should put on my pajamas," Hopie said.  "Which I did."  The little girl gestured to the fuzzy blue pajamas she was wearing.  "I can slay vamps in my pajamas.  'Sides, Aunt Faith isn't here, and so you might need me."  An idea occurred to Hopie.  Maybe one of those vamps would be able to help her lose a tooth.  She was wise enough not to mention the idea out loud.

"This discussion is not over," Gunn, Angel, and Hopie heard Clay say as he and Maddy came into the room, followed by Cordy, Colette, and Nicolaa.

"This conversation consists of you insisting that me kissing random guys is bad," Maddy pointed out reasonably.  "What part of that haven't you said yet?"

"Kissing random guys?" Angel asked, a bit disturbed.

Maddy turned and smiled brightly.  "Know where I can find any?" she asked.  All of the male occupants of the room glared at her.  "Hey," she said.  "I need to learn how to kiss like a slayer, and that doesn't just happen on its own, now does it?  Anyway, it's not like I need to learn how to have sex like a slayer or anything like that."  Maddy paused for a moment.

"Don't even think about saying it," Clay said.  Maddy grinned innocently.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," she replied.

"I think he's talking about sex," Hopie said helpfully.  "Aunt Anya says…"

No one wanted Hopie to finish that sentence.

"So about these clown vampires," Angel said, changing the subject.  Hopie grinned up at him adoringly.

"Crossbow and I are ready," she said.

Cordy couldn't help but smile at the little girl.  "Why am I not surprised?" she asked herself.

TBC… It's late…er, or rather, I suppose, very early, so you guys will have to wait for some more.  Plenty of Faith/Dakota confrontations coming up, cause you know Kody won't just cave.  Also: Spike patrolling with Anni and Jordy, Joss remains duct taped to the door, the clown vamp, strange things start to happen to Anni, and lots of Cale… just REVIEW!!!    


	6. Flirefy

DISCLAIMER: I own Maddy, Nic, Colette, Clay, Chance, Kendall, Anni, Hopie, Cale, Dakota, and (*isn't irony wonderful?*) Joss.  All other characters are the property of Joss Whedon et al.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: For those of you who are particularly attached to any one of my original characters, I wanted to give you a heads up about my latest project… I'm sending all of my OC's to summer camp (think: Maddy and the boys cabins; Hopie and Crossbow on a campout; Nic and Clay under a starry summer sky, and the many wilderness involved ways to flounce Joss).

  More than that, along with Pyro Bear, I'm creating a fanfic "summer camp" that other people can send their OC's to as well.  So if you have a favorite OC from your fic or somebody else's, go check out Camp Tesseract at the url in my bio.  There should be plenty of fun times coming soon, and I'll put up the first chapter of my characters arriving at camp pretty soon.  Who knows?  Maybe I'll even have the leprechauns and sheep pay a visit for karaoke night.

Oh, and sorry it took a while for this update.  I was waiting for some of the readers to catch up.

Thine Own Self: Chapter Six

            Spike, a rather pained expression on his face, walked deliberately in between Anni and Jordy, alternating between shooting a warning look at Anni and a threatening look at Jordy.  Jordy grinned lazily at Anni, completely ignoring the peroxide vampire standing in between them.

            Anni smiled back, her smile slow as always to spread across her delicate face.  Her expression turned very polite and her voice very British when spoke to Spike.

            "Excuse me, Spike," she said sweetly.  "I rather think I'd like to walk on the other side of you."  And like an expert, Anni expertly maneuvered herself around the vampire.

            Spike's eyes opened a little wider.  He'd forgotten how very proper Anni could be if it helped her to get her way.  The little chit was smart.  He'd give her that.

            Jordy, blushing just a little bit, took Anni's hand in his own.

            "I rather think you shouldn't do that," Spike said, his tone overly polite in a bad imitation of Anni's.  

            Anni and Jordy ignored him.

            "Where's a sodding vampire when you need one?" he muttered, and because Sunnydale was a place where irony abounded, they were in that moment, surrounded by vampires.

            Hopie clapped her hands together happily, practically running to keep up with Angel, Connor, Gunn, and the Potentials, her ponytail shaking back and forth as she ran.  Her light blue pajamas slowed her down a little, but the Shanshu child was not one to be left behind.

            "Over there, Daddy," Hopie said, pointing toward an empty amusement park.  She jumped up and down a little.  "That's where I saw the clown vamp.  He was scary.  I don't like clowns."

            Gunn smirked just a bit.  "Figures," he said to Angel.  "The kid isn't scared of vamps, but she doesn't like clowns."

            "Clowns can be very scary," Angel said, his voice small.  Gunn shot an incredulous look at him, and the typical, serious, broody look came back over Angel's face.  "I'm not scared of clowns," he said very unconvincingly.  "I'm just saying that a lot of people are."

            Connor raised one eyebrow in question.  "What's a clown?" he asked.

            Maddy stared at him, thinking he'd lived a very deprived life.  Connor narrowed his eyes at the younger girl just a bit.  

            "What?" Maddy asked, grinning shamelessly at him.

            "You're not going to try to kiss any of the vamps, are you?" he asked.

            Maddy thought about it seriously for a moment.

            "Maddy," Nicolaa said, feeling the need to step in for Clay since he'd stayed behind, "don't even think about it.  That could be dangerous."

            And fun, Maddy thought.  Kissing a vampire could definitely be fun.

            As they stood there, Connor glaring at Maddy, Colette hiding behind Nicolaa, Hopie hopping from foot to foot excitedly, her P.J.'s hanging down past her feet over her fluffy house shoes, they prepared for the battle to come.    

            "Bring it on, Bozo," Angel muttered.

            From behind her duct-tape gag, Joss made some very angry noises as Kendall swung the door shut.  Chance looked at the older Potential, her mouth dropping open at the sight of Joss duct taped to the door.

            Her mouth still wide open, she turned to Kendall.  "You didn't," she said.  Kendall sent her an innocent smile.

            "Didn't what?" she asked, batting her eyelashes.

            "You didn't just duct tape Joss to the door," Chance said, a giggle entering her voice.

            "You're right.  I didn't," Kendall replied, smirking and lying outright.

            Joss's yelling from beneath the gag got a little louder, and her eyes narrowed at Kendall.

            "Then how did it happen?" Chance said, playing along.

            "I haven't the faintest idea," Kendall said, and then, inspired, she continued, "she must have done it herself."

            Chance gave Joss a tiny smile.  "Joss," she said, about to burst into desperate giggles, "why ever would you do a thing like that?"

            Joss's response, of course, could not be deciphered from behind the gag.

            "So," Kendall said lazily, leaning against the door, a few inches away from Joscelyn's face, "what is it that just happened that I won't believe?"

            Chance, remembering everything that had happened downstairs, started talking at hyperspeed.  Kendall listened, and to everyone's surprise, Joss, her mouth securely taped shut, did as well.

            Downstairs, Wesley rested his hand protectively on Willow's shoulder while Kate, her voice the hard cop's voice Wes remembered, told them what she knew about Caleb.

             "The night he was born," Kate said, "my husband was out of town.  I was outside, sitting on the back porch, rocking slowly, and a clap of lightning came across the sky.  A second later, it began to rain, and I knew that the baby wasn't going to wait for anyone."

            At the word husband, Wes raised his left eyebrow.  "And your husband?" he asked, his voice neither rough nor gentle.

            "He's not here," Kate said, no emotion in her voice, but plenty of power in her eyes.  "It's just me and Cale."

            "Mommy and me!"  Cale echoed joyfully.  "Mommy and me and Ozzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz."  

            Kate's expression softened a bit, and there was definite confusion in her eyes.  Cale was friendly and had never met a stranger, but, aside from Kate, he wasn't firmly attached to anyone.  Yet, there he was, sitting comfortably in Oz's arms.  Oz gave what passed for an Oz smile, and Cale beamed at his mother.

            "Oz happy!" he said, smiling widely.

            "How can you tell?" Wes asked, truly interested.  Cale put baby hands on either side of Oz's face and giggled.

            "Well then," Buffy said, "I guess that answers that.  What I still don't understand is why Cale is…" the slayer trailed off as she looked at the little boys.  "A vampire."

            "He's not a vampire," Kate said sharply.  Cale, hearing the tone in his mother's voice, looked at her, a little line of worry creasing his baby forehead.

            "Hey buddy," Oz said.  "How about you and me go out back?"

            Cale stared at Oz.  Oz, completely unperturbed, stared back.  Finally, Cale acquiesced.  

            "Grrrrrr ribbit grrrrrrrr!" he said.  "I'm a monster frog!  I'm greeeeeen."  Kate met Oz's eyes, and for a moment, they held her, before she broke the connection with a slight nod.  

              Oz carried Cale out the back door, his facial expression never changing as he listened to the little boy's happy babbling.

            Back inside, Buffy prompted Kate again.  "So why is Cale, um, humanly challenged?"  Buffy struggled for the politically correct term.

            Kate sent her a sharp glare before turning her attention to Willow.  "I was told by the shaman who examined Cale to search out a group of mystics who would be able to tell me the cause of his condition."  Kate sounded exactly as if she were talking about a medical condition.

            Kate took a breath and uncrossed her legs, folding her arms over her chest and leaning back in her patented tough-police-officer look.  "They told me why," she said.  "And they told me to come to you."  She leaned forward and took Willow's hand in her own.

            "He needs help," Kate said, her voice breaking.  "I need your help."

            Wes cleared his throat.  "If we could return for just a moment to the _why_ issue," he said.

            Kate raised one eyebrow in casual warning at Wes and then directed her answer to his question towards Willow.  "It's Angel," she said.  Everyone in the room stared at her, and after a moment, she continued.  "His son was never supposed to be born."  The statement came off harsh, and Kate took their exchanged glances for confusion.  "You did know he had a son?" she asked.

            "Yes," Buffy said shortly.  "We know."  She didn't mention the fact that Angel's son and her little sister spent a great deal of time lip-locked.  Dawn took that moment to excuse herself upstairs to find Chance and steal some of Buffy's new nail polish.

            Kate continued, trying to tell herself that Angel's son was just a little boy who couldn't help the way he had been brought into this world.  "I didn't mean that the way it sounded.  It's just… the mystics said that Connor's entry into this world caused an imbalance of natural and supernatural forces."  She paused a moment and then pressed on, taking a deep breath.  

            "Cale was born in the same instant as Connor," Kate said.  She looked at Willow expectantly, but it was Giles who followed her inferences first.

            "And Cale was the instrument of the balance," he said.  Kate nodded.

            "That's what the mystics said," Kate replied tersely.

            "A vampire child born to human parents to balance a human child born to vampire parents," Wesley said.  "Fascinating."  Willow smiled at him, because for a moment, she saw his academic side re-emerge, and something about her distinctly liked it.

            "So," Kate said, and though the others could not, Willow saw through her aloof exterior for a moment.  "Can you help us?"

            Willow's mind raced with the magical possibilities.  "I can try," she said.  Kate's expression didn't change, but Willow got the distinct impression that she was worried.

            "If anyone can do it," Giles said, "it's Willow."

            Kate did not looked convinced.

            "She restored Angels soul," Buffy said, "and then almost destroyed the world.  Not at the same time though."  Buffy trailed off awkwardly.

            Kate looked at Willow.

            "I'm pregnant," Willow offered helpfully.  She smiled earnestly, and Kate could not help but return the smile.  From outside, she heard a peal of Cale's giggles.

            "Flire-fy!" Cale said joyfully.  

            Oz looked at the firefly and nodded.

            "Cale catch flire-fy," the little boy said, and Oz set him down on the ground and watched as the little boy carefully examined, a thoughtful expression coming over his face.  After a moment, he moved, with great speed, but a little awkwardly toward the firefly.  The firefly easily flew off before Cale could catch it. His little face crumbled a bit, and Oz knelt down next to him.

            "Here," he said, "I'll show you how, buddy."

            With those words, Oz began giving Cale his very first pouncing lesson.

            When Faith mentioned vampires, Dakota rolled her eyes.

            When Faith explained about demons, Dakota rolled her eyes.

            When Faith brought up the role of the slayer in the world, Dakota rolled her eyes.

            "I'm the slayer," Faith said, "and you're…" As Dakota rolled her eyes again, Faith stopped talking for a moment and gave the girl a hard look.

            "Are your eyes loose or something?" she asked, her voice casually dangerous.

            Dakota, oblivious to the fact that she was still firmly pinned to a wall, answered in a tone identical to Faith's, "Not that I know of.  Then again, I've always been loose, so who's really to say whether the eyes are or not?"

            Faith looked at Dakota's eyes, and she recognized them, and the feeling behind them instantly.

            "You're not loose," she said.

            Dakota smiled a wicked grin.  "Then what am I?" she asked.

            "You're me," Faith said.  Dakota stared at her.

            "Funny," Kody said, "you almost sound serious."

            Faith unpinned her.  "That's because I am, Muffin."

            "Muffin?" Dakota asked.

            "I had a dog named Muffin," Faith replied.  "It seemed appropriate."  Dakota, frozen in place by the look in Faith's eye, returned her gaze.  "Kody," Faith said, the nickname rolling off her tongue, "you are me.  Genetically, magically, you are me."

            Dakota nodded her head slightly, feeling the woman's words to be truth.  "So what if I am?" she asked.  "Do I get a door prize?  Sorry, Faith," she said, walking away, her voice the echo of Faith's typical care-free sarcasm.  "I'm not a puppy.  I don't sit when you say sit.  I don't heel when you say heel, and I certainly don't sit up and shake and play nice just because you tell me too.  So what if you're me, only older?  So what if there are vampires or demons or slayers or whatever?  That doesn't change who I am, except maybe that it gives me a little more power."

            Dakota turned to leave, and Faith's voice rang out.  "Don't walk away from me."

            Kody paused for a minute and then turned back around.  "I don't do very well with the stay command either," she said.  

            "Go back in the house," Faith said.  "You have to know I can make you."

            "Maybe," Dakota said.  "Maybe not."

            "Would you like me to show you 'maybe'?" Faith asked, cursing herself because the last thing she had wanted to do was get into a dominance contest with her demi.  

            Dakota shrugged her shoulders, and her entire body seemed to scream I DON'T CARE.

            Faith knew that posture was a lie.  Dakota cared, and if she didn't, she would soon.

            Kendall whistled underneath her breath.  "So there's a baby vamp downstairs?" she asked.

            "Toddler," Chance replied.

            "Mmfghsm," said Joss.

            "And the mother, Wes and Buffy knew her?" Kendall asked, ignoring Joss.

            "Yup," Chance replied.  "Buffy didn't like her.  I think she tried to kill Angel once or something."  With her innate ability to string together sentences that did not relate to each other at all, Chance continued talking.  "I borrowed Buffy's new nail polish," she said, victoriously showing Kendall the bottle.  

            Just then, the door flew open, sending Joss flying toward the wall.  Kendall snorted.  Chance burst into hysterical giggles, hoping at the same time that Joss was all right.

            Dawn looked at the two of them.  "What?" she asked.  

            "Close the door," Kendall instructed her.  Dawn did so, and her jaw dropped when she saw the pariah-ed Potential securely fastened to the inside of the door.  Kendall looked at Dawn, hoping the girl wouldn't spoil her fun.

            Dawn thought briefly about all of the times that Joss had not-so-subtly pointed out the fact that though she was the slayer's little sister, she wasn't a Potential.  Dawn lifted her hand toward the tape, and for a moment, Kendall thought she was going to let Joss down.  Instead, Dawn ran her hand gently along the duct tape as if inspecting it.  "I have to admire your thoroughness," she said finally.

            From behind the gag, Joss sighed.

            "Well," Willow said finally, "I think I know some balancing spells that might lift the burden of the balance from Cale, but I'd need to seriously look into the likely consequences.  Then again, there might be a prophesy or something."

            "A prophesy?" Kate asked.

            "There's always a prophesy," Buffy said helpfully.

            "It's time for us to get all research-y," Willow said.

            Kate took that as her cue that the discussion part of the evening was over.  "I better go," she said, standing up.  "It's past Cale's bed time, and we still have to find a hotel."

            Buffy made a face.  At Giles's censuring look, she explained herself.  "I've never been at a Sunnydale Hotel at which a person was not killed either shortly before or shortly after I arrived there.  Somehow, in my mind, Sunnydale Hotel just equals death."  She shot an apologetic look at Kate.

            "I'm sure we'll be fine," Kate said.

            "Oooo," Willow said suddenly.  "You could stay with Oz.  It's just him and Jordy right now, and they've got a great big house."  She smiled at the solution.

            Refusing the option mentally, Kate walked outside.  For a moment, she couldn't see Oz or Cale, and her heart began racing.  Then, she saw two forms, one big and one tiny, crouched on the ground a few feet away from a firefly.

            Suddenly, Cale sprung and quickly, but gently, caught the firefly in his hands.

            "What are you guys doing?" Buffy asked, following Kate onto the porch.

            "Pouncing lesson," Oz responded casually.

            Kate's eyebrows rose so high they almost disappeared into her hairline.  

            "Haven't you ever seen The Lion King?" Oz asked.

            Cale came running up to his mother, his chubby baby hands cupped carefully in front of him.  "Caught a flire-fy, Mommy!" he said cheerfully.  Kate ducked down next to him.

            "Did you now?" she asked.  He nodded, and as Willow came out onto the porch, Kate sent her a short and thankful look.

            "I told Kate she could stay with you," Willow said, and before Oz could reply, Willow reminded him that she was indeed pregnant.  Oz took that under consideration.

            "Not a problem," he said.  "As soon as Jordy gets back, we can go."

            Kate almost refused, but thinking of the aforementioned mortality rate in Sunnydale hotels, she swallowed her pride and accepted the offer in a much more stiffly than Oz had given it.

            Without so much as a word, Cale curled up at Kate's feet, and fell asleep instantly, his hands opening just enough that the firefly was let loose.  It stayed in the little boy's hand a moment, and then flew off into the night.

            As soon as she saw the vamps, Anni grabbed a stake out of her sleeve and went to work.  Though the moon was not full, she could hear Jordy growl beside her, and she knew that he would hold his own.  

            A black-haired vampire wearing clothes that had gone out of style before Anni was even born rushed her, and with one deft move of her wrist, he exploded into dust.  The other vampires looked at Anni, a look of awe coming into their expressions, as the dust that had been the eighties vamp swirled around her, as if caught in an imaginary wind.  

            Spike looked at her.  "Bollucks," he said.  "What's happening now."

            One of the vampires looked at him.  "Don't you feel it?" the female vampire asked him, absolutely crooning in her most seductive voice.  Spike staked her, as Jordy staked another vamp.  

            "Don't feel a thing," Spike said.

            None of the other vampires heard him.  They were all looking at Anni, and one by one, they fell to their knees in homage.

            A changed expression came over Anni's face for a moment.  As the vamps stared, enraptured at the nearly teenaged girl, Spike and Jordy made quick work of them, and as each exploded into dust, the dust added to the swirling mass of dust around Anni's body.

            Anni smiled wickedly.  "There'll be more of them," she said, her voice low and seductive as she looked at Spike and Jordy.  The two of them stared back at her, wondering just what exactly was going on.

            Eight vamps appeared in the amusement park almost at once.  Hopie giggled and lifted her crossbow, easily taking out the first before the others even realized that the vamp herd had arrived.

            Almost immediately, the eight vamps had all been slayed.

            "That wasn't so bad," Connor said, barely breaking a sweat.

            Maddy was disappointed.  She, Colette, and Nic had collectively taken out one vamp, and Gunn, Angel, Hopie, and Connor had taken care of the rest.  Maddy sighed.  She hadn't even gotten a chance to kiss one of the vampires yet.  What fun was slaying without the kissing?    

            "That wasn't it," Hopie said.

            Suddenly, a large group of vampires appeared, amongst them, a clown.  He smiled wickedly at Hopie.  "Why don't you come here, little one?" he said, his face not yet his demon face.

            Hopie looked at him warily.

            "What, afraid of clowns?" he asked.  Angel shuddered.

            The clown vamped suddenly, and the rest of the vampires followed suit.  "This better, sweetheart?" he asked, his voice still sugary sweet.

            Hopie smiled up at him.  "Much better," she said before letting out a little war cry.

            In that moment, before the battle began to rage, Hopie knew something that she couldn't quite express.  She knew that these vampires weren't out for blood just yet.  They were on a mission, a mission they considered holy.  As the clown exploded into brightly colored dust, Hopie frowned deeply.

            "Bella," Hopie muttered.  "They know Bella is special."

            Spike and Jordy stared at Anni, not understanding at all what had just occurred.  Anni sauntered over to Jordy and in one swift motion, tackled him to the ground and began kissing him the way that no twelve year old girl had the right to be kissing anyone.

            "What the hell are you doing?" Spike asked.

            Anni lifted her mouth off of the stunned Jordy's for just a moment, still lying on top of him.   She lazily told Spike what he could do with his scolding, in the most inappropriate language imaginable, before returning to kissing Jordy once more.

            A moment later, a blushing Anni stood up, wondering how in the world she had just come to be lying on top of her boyfriend, and also wondering why Spike was glaring at her like he was having to restrain himself to keep from washing her mouth out with the proverbial soap.  She was beginning to think that it was going to be a very long, very interesting night.

            For the first time in Jordy's life, a huge smile spread over his face, and he was easier to read than any book.

            "Wipe that grin off your face," Spike said, before turning his attention to Anni.  "And you get yourself over here right now, young lady."  It occurred to Spike a moment lady, that he'd actually said the phrase 'young lady.'  He made a mental note to forget the statement had ever crossed his lips.

            Thinking of lips, he thought of Anni's, and he winced visibly.

            Again, Anni wondered what exactly was going on.

            While Nic and Colette finished off a female vampire, Maddy set her sight on a rather young, very attractive blonde male vampire.  With a war cry imitating Hopie's, she ran straight to him and pressed what she thought passed for a very passionate kiss to his lips.  To her surprise the vampire kissed back in the second before he exploded into dust.  

            The next instant, Maddy found herself thrown over Connor's shoulder, her head hanging upside down over his back.

            As he decapitated the last vampire, Angel headed over to Hopie and noticed that the girl was standing, frozen to a spot on the ground.  He picked her up, and Hopie said nothing.  She lay her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes, trying to understand what the connection she felt to the world itself through her ancient magic was telling her.

            As they left the amusement park, Angel carrying a sleeping Hopie, and Connor carrying a kicking and screaming Maddy, not one of their group noticed as the vampire dust, pulled by an invisible force, flew toward Sunnydale.

            "I feel a little guilty about just leaving Joss hanging there," Chance said, eyeing the Potential taped to the door.

            Kendall finished painting her nails and handed the polish to Chance.

            "Tell you what," she said.  "Joss can have the first pedicure."

            Chance smiled.  That seemed fair enough.  Joss got ready to yell at them now that they were finally going to let her down.  Then she was going straight down to tell Buffy.  It wasn't fair that they were all so mean to her.  She'd never done anything to them.  They thought they were all so special.

            Chance, a wicked but good-natured grin on her face, took off Joss's shoes, and she carefully painted the older girl's toe nails, leaving them to dangle dry as the girl remained duct taped to the door.

TBC… I know this chap was dangerously short of fluff, but as soon as I get all of the couples back in the same room together, I promise there'll be some more B/S, A/C, and F/L.  Also, I know you guys want the deal on the baby stuff, but trust me, I know exactly when all of this is happening, and you'll have to wait another couple of chapters.  As for what exactly is going on with Anni… all will be revealed, I promise.  

Anyway, please review.  I usually hold off on updating until I feel like most everyone has read the most recent chapter, and the only way I can tell is through the reviews, so the more slowly the reviews come in, the more slowly the story gets updated.  So, let me know that you're reading, what you're liking, and what you're not.


	7. Muffin

DISCLAIMER: I only own Dakota, Maddy, Nic, Clay, Colette, Joss, Chance, Anni, Kendall, Hopie, and Cale.  All others are property of Joss Whedon et al.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: My muse isn't really here tonight, but so many of you reviewed, that I feel compelled to update anyway.  Please be kind to me, because the words don't really want to come.

I noticed that a lot of you are wanting Joss to be accepted back into the group.  This makes me happy, because it means that I'm writing that part well, because that's exactly how I want you to feel.  In a few chapters, you'll be getting a better look at Joss's past and why she is the way she is, and though there will always be occasional Joss flouncing, don't worry, there will be some redemption for her in the course of the fic.  That being said, I want to do it my way, in my time.  So you guys will have to be contented that I know what I'm doing with her, and that I have very particular plans in mind that are important to the plot as a whole.  Now I'm going to shut up before I say too much.

Also, if you haven't read Le Bella, this could easily get confusing on the Anni front pretty soon.  What's happening to Anni has to do with what happened in Le Bella (muahahahah… I love foreshadowing), and the mythos of it all might get kinda confusing if you didn't read it the first time.

Oh, and thanks for your votes, guys.  I won the Passions Award for Best Fanfiction, and I really love all of you who went and voted!  Same goes for the Heroes award, so thanks much to you all!

As for the camp site, it's there, I promise, but sometimes you have to click on the link a couple of times to get it to work.  Also, fair warning, I'm not sure when the camp story will start, but if it happens to start before this one ends, you might want to hold off on reading it if you don't want spoiled on the Wes/Willow and Faith/Lindsey kiddos as far as names go… cause future versions of those kids are going to camp too.

Anyway, here I go… I hope my muse comes back to me and that you, as the dining hall worker at one of my college's dining halls says judiciously, 'enjoy.'

Thine Own Self: Chapter Seven

            Anni frowned.  She was rather confused as to why Spike was glaring at her like he was about to give her a very British setting down.  She was also confused as to why Jordy was looking at her with a look of complete awe on his face.

            Spike cleared his throat.  "Annabella," he said.  Somehow, it sounded odd coming off of his lips.  She looked at him and raised one eyebrow questioningly.

            "Uh, yes Spike?" she said.  Spike groaned inwardly.  The little chit was really something.

            "I won't tell nancy Watcher Boy about tonight," Spike said, smirking, desperately trying to get the fatherly expression off of his face.  He was a vampire, for crying out loud, not Mary Poppins with a sunlight aversion and pointy teeth.

            "Okay…" Anni said slowly, completely confused by Spike's words.  "Thanks.  I think."  Anni leaned over to Jordy.

            "What is he talking about?" she asked him.

            Jordy gave Anni an incredulous look, meaning that his eyes opened, almost imperceptibly, wider than usual.

            "Kiss," Jordy said, making use of the one word answer.

            Anni thought it sounded like a command.  "You want me to kiss you with Spike standing right there?" she asked.  A small smile crept onto her face.  The idea was very tempting.

            "You did kiss me with Spike standing right there," Jordy said, his voice flat, but a bit amused sounding.

            "I did?" Anni asked.

            Jordy nodded.  Anni looked at Spike, who was muttering to himself.

            "Just a spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down…" Spike trailed off when he saw Anni looking at him.

            "This is all your bloody fault," he said, a cross expression settling over his face.

            Anni suppressed a smile, and her lips tingled just a bit, as some part of her remembered the passionate kiss she'd shared with Jordy.  

            Just then, Spike sneezed.

            "Bless you," Anni said.

            "Not with Holy water," Spike replied blithely.

            He sneezed again.

            "Geshundheit," Anni said.

            "Sounds like a German Dictator," Jordy commented.

            Spike sneezed again and looked around, seeing small, dust-like particles in the air.  "Sodding vamp dust," he said, sniffling a bit.  "You'd think it would have settled by now."  

            None of the three of them noticed the light, amethyst tint of the vamp dust as it slammed into Anni's body, and a changed expression again came over her face.

            Looking at Joss, Chance felt a small pull of guilt in her stomach.  Sure, the older girl had been nasty, but that was just the way Joss was, and long before they'd met the Sunnydale gang, all of the Potentials had come to accept that.  Joss's betrayal of them to Travers was a harder thing to except, but Chance couldn't help but wonder if maybe they should ease up on Joss a bit.  Willow seemed to think so.

            Feeling pity, Chance reached up and undid the tape over Joss's mouth.

            "It's about time," Joss grumbled.  Kendall groaned.  A silent Joss was a far superior Joss, as far as she was concerned.

            "Hey," Kendall said, "if I were you, I wouldn't be complaining.  You got the first pedicure and there was no whip cream involved whatsoever.  As far as flouncings go, this wasn't too terribly bad."

            Joss glared at her.  "You duct taped me to a door, Kendall.  When Buffy finds out what you did…"  Joss trailed off, hating herself for pulling the tattletale card.

            "Buffy's not going to find out," Kendall said.  "She's really busy with this baby vampire thing, and the frigid blonde chick.  Do you really think she wants to hear about our petty squabbles?"

            "You.  Duct.  Taped.  Me.  To.  The.  Door," Joss gritted out.

            "I still maintained you did it to yourself," Kendall maintained.  Chance suppressed a giggle.

            "Would you let me down already?" Joss said, wiggling her freshly painted purple toes a little.

            Just then, someone knocked on the door.

            "Who is it?" Chance asked, her eyes going wide.

            "It's me," Buffy replied.

            Kendall quickly grabbed the tape out of Chance's hand and slapped it back on Joss's mouth.

            "Sorry," she mouthed, a grin on her face.

            "Come in," Dawn said, trying to get the ridiculous smile off of her own face.  Joss had taken great pains to let Dawn know day after day that since Dawn wasn't a Potential, she'd never really understand Buffy like the rest of them did.

            Buffy opened the door, and Joss was again hidden from view.

            "Is Anni back yet?" Buffy asked.

            All three girls shook their heads.

            Buffy narrowed her eyes at them.  "You have guilt face," she told them.  Dawn batted her eyelashes innocently, and Kendall quickly wiped the smirk off of her own face.

            Chance tried to hide her guilty expression, but it was no use.

            "You can't hide your guilt face from me," Buffy said.  "That's my guilt face, and I'm pretty sure I recognize my own guilt face."

            Chance rolled her eyes out of reflex.

            "So it _is genetic," Buffy commented, noticing the eye rolling.  "Don't give me that eye-rolly look.  I invented that look."_

            Chance grinned sheepishly and shrugged.

            Buffy stared at each of the three girls, and she asked the magic question.  "Where's Joss?" she asked.

            "She must be hanging around here somewhere," Kendall replied with a completely straight face.

            Chance struggled not to burst into giggles, and she hoped Joss was doing all right behind the door.

            Joss made a mental note to flounce Kendall some time in the near future.

            "She's just hanging around here somewhere?" Buffy asked skeptically.  Kendall nodded innocently.

            "I'm just sure she is," she said earnestly.

            "Mmffphtm," Joss mumbled from behind the door.  Buffy didn't hear her.

            Faith looked at Dakota, not even sure if the girl was really hearing her.  "Get in the house," Faith said again.

            Dakota stared at her, and Faith found herself in the other girl's eyes.

            "Listen, Fido," Dakota said, "I have no intention of doing anything you say.  I'm not going to slay demons for you, though it's nice to know I come by my ass-kicking tendencies naturally.  You can say what you want to say, but in the end, I do what I want to do."

            "Want.  Take.  Have," Faith murmured.  The girl looked at her.

            "Yeah," she said lazily.  "That pretty much sums it up."

            Faith took a step closer to Dakota.  "You don't want to go there," she said.  "Trust me, kid, I've been there.  It's not a happy place."

            Dakota shrugged.  "Hey man," she said.  "I'm five by five."

            Faith took in a deep breath and narrowed her eyes at Dakota.  Dakota turned to leave.  

            "You get your little false confident ass into that house," Faith said, trying to speak a language that Kody would understand, "or I drag you in there.  You wanna fight?  We can fight, Muffin."  Faith's voice was low, but Dakota recognized the danger.  She smiled at the thought of a fight.  Fighting was something she was good at, something she understood, something that always put Daddy Dearest in the most awkward social positions.

            "Well, Sprocket," Dakota said.  "Let's see you bring it, cause if you think I'm going to let you come in here and tell me what to do, then you don't know me at all."

            Without giving any physical indication, Dakota lashed out at Faith, her arm going for the older girl's face.

            Faith caught it in the air, and twisted it behind Dakota's back, effectively pinning the girl in place again.

            "See," Faith said conversationally.  "I know you perfectly well."

            The two of them glared at each other, with identical I-don't-care glares.  Suddenly, Faith let go of Kody's arm and bent over, heaving violently.

            Dakota looked at her, an awkward expression coming over her face.  Confrontation, she could take.  She was an expert at defying authority, but she couldn't handle sick people.

            After a moment, Faith stood up straight again.  Dakota stared at Faith's stomach, and Faith followed her gaze.  Shocked, Faith set her hand on her stomach, her now noticeably pregnant stomach.  A slayer pregnancy, she thought, her heart beating hard against her rib cage at the thought of a baby.  It must go faster than a normal pregnancy.

            "I didn't know you were knocked up," Kody commented, trying to keep her voice casual.

            Faith laughed a little.  "Neither did I," she said.

            "Guess I'm not the only one who sleeps around," Kody said.

            Faith glared at her, even though she knew that this was the only way Kody could relate to her.  "Lindsey is my husband and the father," Faith said coarsely.

            "Lucky you," Kody commented.  "Now I'll just leave you and baby and daddy alone for a while," Kody said, her voice dripping with challenge.  "I'm sure you could use some alone time."

            Instantly, the girl was again pinned to a wall.

            "Muffin," Faith said, a smile on her face.  "Pregnant or not, I can kick your ass."

            "Maybe," Dakota said.  "Maybe not.  And stop calling me Muffin, Bowzer."

            "Not a chance, Muffin," Faith said, looking the girl directly in the eye.  Kody's spirit was still there, and Faith rolled her eyes, thinking of all of the trouble this girl was going to give everyone back in L.A.  In a twisted kind of way, Faith was looking forward to it.

            Back in L.A., Maddy was starting to get extremely tired of Connor ignoring her pleas for him to please put her down.

            She stared at his back grumpily.  "Put me down, Connor," she said.

            "So you can go make out with the first person who comes walking by?" Connor asked.  "I don't think so."

            "I'm more of a biker person than a walker person," Maddy said.

            Connor gritted her teeth.

            "Maddy, hush," Nicolaa said, her voice leaving no room for argument.  

            Maddy twisted around a bit, trying to look at Nicolaa.  "What's wrong with you?" she asked.

            "That wasn't smart," Nic said seriously.  "You could have been hurt."

            Maddy frowned.  She'd just been having a little fun.

            "Well, if Connor and Clay would let me kiss regular guys," Maddy said reasonably, "I wouldn't have to go kissing vamps."  To her, the logic was extremely sound.

               Hopie, in Angel's arms, frowned suddenly.  

            "What's wrong, baby?" Angel asked her.  A pained look came over his face.  "You aren't thinking of kissing any vampires, are you?"

            "Would that make my teeth fall out?" Hopie asked.

            "No," Colette replied, completely sure of herself.  The others stared at her.

            "How would you know?" Gunn asked her, curiously.

            "No comment," Colette said, remembering why she typically made every effort to go unnoticed.

            "Hopie," she said changing the subject.  "Your teeth will fall out when they're ready to."

            "Maybe I should let one of the vamps punch me next time," Hopie said.

            "No!" Everyone said at once.

            "It's not my fault my teeth are mean," Hopie grumbled, laying her head down on Angel's chest.

            "I'm brooding," she announced.  "Does anyone want to brood with me please?"

            "I will," Maddy offered.  

            "What about you, Daddy?" Hopie asked, yawning.

            "I never brood," Angel said, completely serious.

            All of the others stared at him.

            "They're going to her," Hopie mumbled as she fell asleep.  "Cause she's their princess."

            Connor, Gunn, and Angel all winced at the word 'princess.'  They'd played a few too many pretend games with Hopie, and hearing her say the word, they could only think of that sparkly hot pink tiara and the matching feather boa they'd all worn before.

            "All going to her.  She's special and purple," Hopie murmured.  "Never stopped being special."

            From her spot flung over Connor's shoulder, Maddy gave him a good kick.

            "If you don't let me down," she said.  "I'm going to have an orgy.  I don't really know what an orgy is, but trust me, I can find out."

            Connor wrinkled his forehead.  Did orgy mean what he thought it meant?

            "Or maybe I'll go streaking," Maddy said.  "Yup, I'll just run around naked if you don't put me down, Connor."

            In a flash, Connor reluctantly sat Maddy down.  Maddy grinned, completely satisfied with herself.  In the past day, she'd kissed her first boy, her second boy, and her first vampire.  It had been a very productive day.

            Oz shifted Cale slightly in his arms, and the little boy snuggled closer to the werewolf.

            "He does that," Kate said, her smile softening her face greatly.  "He wiggles in his sleep and snuggles like crazy.  He likes to be near someone.  I was thinking about getting him a dog when he was a little older."  Kate realized she was babbling and that Oz wasn't saying a word, but somehow, she didn't feel awkward.

            "I think he'd like a dog," Oz said with a completely straight face.

            Kate looked at her watch.

            "We can go," Oz offered.  "Spike can walk Jordy home when they get back."

            Kate nodded.  She was tired too, and what she really wanted, what she needed, was a hot shower.

            "My house is just a couple of blocks away," Oz said.  "We can walk."  Kate nodded, and after saying their goodbyes, the two of them left.

            "Bye bye, flire-fy," Cale murmured in his sleep.  He wiggled again, and Oz managed to keep from dropping the squirming, sleeping child.

            "Good reflexes," Kate commented.

            "I try," Oz said.

            Kate glanced away from him, and wondered why, given that Oz wasn't really smiling, she felt like he was.

            "I can see that," Kate said.  The funny thing was, she could.

            "Well," Mr. Kincaide said, smiling at Lindsey.  "Everything seems to be in order here.  I'll just write you a check for tuition, and I'll have someone pack Dakota's bags for her."

            Lindsey stared at the man, expertly keeping his true feelings hidden behind his deep eyes.

            "Excellent," he said, wondering how in the world this man with so much was so ready to part with the one thing that should have really mattered to him.  As he looked at the man, Lindsey got a feeling in his gut, the kind of feeling that had always told him to dig deeper, to look into the person he was staring at.

            Kincaide wasn't all that he seemed.  Lindsey was quite sure of that.  He also knew one more thing.  If the man tried to mess with Kody or Faith, he'd kill him.

            "Well, I'm afraid I have a meeting I'm late for," Kincaide said.  "Please tell Dakota I said goodbye."

            Lindsey quelled the urge to punch the man.  The house Faith had grown up in might have been able to fit in Kody's room alone, but there wasn't any more love in this house than in Faith's childhood hellhole.

            Faith's father had been literally absent, her mother abusive.  Dakota's father, while here physically, was no better than Faith's father.

            Lindsey started to wonder exactly how the monks had known that Dakota was the person to give Faith's genes and slayer essence to.  He decided to look into that as well, right after he learned everything he could about Kody's father.

            As soon as Kincaide left, Lindsey loosened his tie and wondered how Faith was faring with Dakota.

            Dakota saw her father pull out of the driveway in one of his many sports cars.  She looked at Faith.

            "Ten to one odds he's already signed the check," she said.

            Faith said nothing.  "Let's go," she said.  She let Kody loose.  "I'm glad we could have this little talk," she said.

            Kody rolled her eyes.

            Faith rolled her eyes back.

            Dakota thought about leaving, but since her father was gone, she'd honestly lost the urge to stay out all night.  He wouldn't notice anyway, and Faith might just make good on her offer of a free ass-kicking.

            Thinking that her father had probably told Lindsey he had a meeting, Dakota snorted.  What kind of meeting could a man like her father possibly have at night time?  He probably had a new lover.

            Watch out, Astro, she thought.  Make room for Barkly.

            Lilah sighed, very put upon.  She stared at her law clerk/minion.  "My appointment is late," she commented, narrowing her eyes.  "I fly all the way out to the middle of nowhere, and he's late."

            "Do you want me to have him killed?" the law clerk asked, brightly.  Lilah glared at the girl.  She was a recent graduate of Harvard Law, and as far as Lilah was concerned, none too bright.

            "No," Lilah said.  "He has money, which is nice.  He has connections, which is nicer.  And, he has something I want."

            "What's that?" the woman asked.

            "His daughter," Lilah replied.  At that moment, Mr. Kincaide finally showed up, and Lilah greeted him smoothly.  She was very good at getting what she wanted, and right now, she wanted two things.  She wanted her baby back and she wanted to kill everyone who stood in her way, starting with the Shanshu child.  And because she wanted those two things, she wanted Dakota Kincaide.

            Anni ran her hand softly down the side of Jordy's neck, sending chills down his spine.  He looked at her.  She leaned over and began kissing his neck.

            "What the hell are you doing?!" Spike squeaked.

            "Don't worry, lover," Anni said to him, her voice dark.  "You'll get your share.  There's plenty to go around."

            "Annabella," Spike said, finally managing to say the full name the way Wes did.  Anni didn't blanche.

            "I'm not your Annabella.  Not really," Anni said, smiling wickedly.  "Not anymore."

            Spike grabbed her shoulder.  "Stop it," he commanded her.

            With one quick move of her hand, she sent him flying.  "Go to hell," she told him.  Then she smirked.  "Maybe I'll send you there myself."  She turned back to Jordy.

            "Anni, what's going on?" Jordy asked her, finding his mouth covered with hers.  He pulled back.

            Spike stood up.  "Anni," Spike tried again, real anger in his voice.

            Anni turned to him and quite politely told him to go screw himself in the most colorful and inappropriate way she could come up with.

            Spike stared at her.  She laughed, and a second later, Anni realized that she had no idea why she was laughing.

            She looked hesitantly at Spike.  "Is something wrong?" she asked him.

            "You ought to be thrashed," Spike said, angry that thanks to her behavior her was starting to sound like, horror of horrors, Giles.

            Anni looked hesitantly from Jordy to Spike.  She opened her mouth, and though she thought it probably wasn't a wise idea, she had to ask.

            "Why?"

TBC…next up, Lindsey finds out Faith's pregnant and goes into happy daddy/ overprotective husband mode, a new revelation about Mr. Kincaide, plenty of Oz/Kate time, finally some fluff with C/A, S/B, and W/W, and a Cale/Jordy bonding moment.  Soon, Dakota meets Chance and the rest of the Potentials, Cale and Kate meet Connor, and the thing going on with Anni is finally revealed.

PLEASE REVIEW for a quick update. 


	8. Daddy

DISCLAIMER: I don't own AtS and BtVS related characters.  I do own the others.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry it took a while, but honestly I've been very busy.  In fact, right now I _should be writing my comparative cognition paper, but hey, you guys were so good about reviewing that I feel compelled to update._

Anyway, cut me a little slack, please.  I haven't been having a very good week at all (let's face it, it's gotten downright nasty on the fanfic front), and I could use some cheering up.  Still, if you have a suggestion or criticism, I'll be glad to hear it.

And just to get you thinking ahead, after this fic, I have a fluffy one planned that involves Hopie's fifth birthday and fun stuff when her birthday wish turns the adults into kids and the little kids into adults… Angel, Cordy, Lindsey, and Faith at four and Hopie at eighteen, etc.  

And that, I think, might be the last Hopie fic, and my last fanfiction for that matter.  If I do continue, the next serious fic will be either Maddy-centric (since I set up her plotline at the end of THINGS) or a future fic involving the Wes/Willow Faith/Lindsey kiddos.

As for this fic, we've got probably five or six more chapters and a prologue, and it will probably be finished before I take finals the second week of May.

Oh, and for whoever asked, the Sunnydale gang will be heading to LA in chapter nine (next chapter).

And now, onto the story.

Thine Own Self: Chapter Eight

            Spike stared at Anni, his eyes glittering dangerously.  "What do you mean, asking why?" he asked her.  "I think we both sodding know why, chit."

            Anni stared at him, her face completely blank.  She was wise enough not to say anything.  She leaned toward Jordy, and he jumped.  "What is he talking about?" she whispered to him.

            Jordy stared at her.  "You really don't know, do you?" he asked her in a whisper.  She shook her head.  "Know what?" she asked him, shrugging.

            Spike gripped her shoulders and turned her body toward him a bit roughly.  "You're playing games you can't even begin to understand, little girl," he said.  She stared at him.  What in the blazes was he talking about anyway?

            "Spike," she whispered, and the small and hurt tone in her voice made him look at her closely.  "I honestly don't know what you're talking about.  The last thing I remember, I was making fun of you for sneezing."

            Spike tilted his head and stared at her, hard.  "Is that right?" he asked her.  Anni nodded, and Jordy took her hand in his.

            Spike expelled a breath.  "Well," he said, "whatever happened to you, we'd better figure it out soon, because I can guarantee you, if you act like that around Wes, whether you realize you're doing it or not, the results aren't going to be pretty.  He may be a nancy boy, but I think your rustic watcher-boy brother could make things rather uncomfortable for you, and I know that he would."  Anni looked down.  There were some things that Wes took very seriously.  

            "Thanks, Spike," Anni said.

            "Don't be thanking me," Spike said.  "I was an inch away from thrashing you until you couldn't sit straight for a good week at least.  If you'd been my little sister, I think I probably would have."

            Anni stared at her, her tummy rumbling.  "Am I correct in assuming you've gotten over that particular caprice?"  Spike felt the urge to smile at Anni's word choice.  For the most part, it had been easy for them all to forget that she was so bright.

            "Caprice?" he asked, his eyebrow raised.  

            "Whim," she replied.  "Fancy."

            Jordy put his arm around Anni protectively.  "I wouldn't have let him hurt you," he said with a teenage boy's bravado.

            Spike snorted.  "Listen, pup, if I'd taken it in my mind to turn Anni over my knee, there's nothing you could have done to stop me."

            A growl rose in Jordy's throat.

            "Where's a rolled up newspaper when you need one?" Spike asked out loud.  Anni stifled a giggle.

            "Spike," she said, "that's not funny."

            Jordy put his arm around Anni in a very deliberate motion, his eyes still on Spike.

            Spike groaned.  Anni grinned, and for the moment, nothing else happened.

            Lindsey stared at his wife in shocked silence.  "You're pregnant," he said, eyeing her stomach.  

            Faith nodded, her hand resting on her stomach.

            "You weren't pregnant when you went outside," Lindsey said slowly, looking at Dakota.

            "Don't look at me, gorgeous," she replied.  "It's not like I impregnated her."

            Lindsey tried to keep the smile off of his face.  Dakota sounded just like Faith.

            Lindsey crossed the room toward his wife, and Kody grudgingly admitted that he had rather nicely developed arm muscles.  Of everything she would say for Faith, the older girl had impeccable taste in men.

               Lindsey rested his hand on Faith's stomach.  "Our baby," he said, his voice soft with awe.

            He kept repeating those words, pulling Faith into his tight embrace, and lifting her off the ground, spinning around in circles.  His voice grew boyish and loud, and a giant grin settled on his face.

            "I'm going to be a daddy," he said.

            Faith nuzzled his neck.  "Yes," she said.  "You are."

            Suddenly, a worried expression came over Lindsey's face.  "When am I going to be a daddy?" he asked.

            "At the rate she's going," Dakota drawled, "I'd say not to make any dinner plans, Skippy."

            Lindsey wondered briefly how he'd made the transition from 'gorgeous' to 'Skippy.'  He turned his attention back to his wife.  "Are you all right?  You're not feeling sick?  Weak?"

            "I'm never weak," Faith said, "and I don't think there's any food left in me for me to be sick, quite honestly."  At Lindsey's concerned expression, Faith executed a delicate shrug that Kody recognized as one of her own gestures.  "Morning sickness, minus the morning, plus a vengeance," Faith said dryly.

            Lindsey rubbed her back slightly, and Faith realized that despite her condition, she wanted nothing more than an hour alone with her husband.

            "Since I'm guessing a threesome is out," Kody said politely, "would you like me to excuse the two of you?"

            Faith turned to glare at the girl, but she couldn't quite make an angry expression.  "No," she said wryly.  "You're not going anywhere."

            "As if you're going to stop me, Miss Bun-in-the-Oven?" Kody said lazily.

            "Do we really have to go there again, Muffin?" Faith asked.

            Lindsey, who'd been watching the by-play, interested, almost choked.  Muffin?  Muffin?!  

            "Don't call me that," Dakota said.

            "But we're so cute when we're pissed," Faith said, laughter in her voice.  Dakota rolled her eyes.  Lindsey laughed.

            "That," she said, "you definitely are."

            "Any chance that you have a younger clone?" Dakota asked him.

            Lindsey shook his head, but his hand went involuntarily to Faith's stomach.  "Not yet," he replied, the goofy grin still on his face.  On impulse, her brought his lips to Faith's and kissed them softly, losing himself in her eyes.

            "No wonder she's pregnant already," Dakota muttered.  Lindsey grinned again.  Dakota grinned back a bit.  She almost liked Lindsey, and half of the time, it felt like she didn't like anyone.  He clearly didn't take himself too seriously.  If there was one thing Dakota Kincaide hated, it was a person without a sense of humor, who took themselves very seriously, and who spent a good deal of their time doing nothing more than brooding.  That kind of person always felt like it was their obligation to tell her what to do.  At least, as annoying as Faith was, she wasn't all quiet and serious and broody.

            "Go pack," Faith told the younger girl.  

            "And you think I'll do that because…?" Kody asked.

            Faith, a huge grin coming over her face, looked at the girl.  "Because I'm pregnant," Faith said, feeling giddy with the words.

            Even though it made no logical sense, Dakota shrugged.  She looked at Faith's stomach, which appeared even larger than it had before.  "Whatever," she said.

            "Don't get snarky, Muffin," Faith called as Kody took the stairs two at a time.  

            "I'll make you a deal," the girl said, turning around.  "If the two of you can keep your hands off of each other, I'll stop being 'snarky.'"  The sarcasm in the girl's voice was clear.

            Lindsey took Faith gently in his hands, dipped her back, and kissed her long, at first for Kody's benefit, and then because he couldn't help himself.  He lifted his lips off of Faith's just the tiniest bit.

            "Snark away," Faith mumbled.

            When they were alone in the room, Lindsey sank to his knees, putting his mouth on Faith's stomach and kissing it gently.  "Hello, baby," he said.

            "Hello, daddy," Faith said, smiling.

            "Daddy," the sleeping child mumbled.  "It's not fair.  The ice cream wants to race with the zebra, but everything's purple again."

            Angel shifted Hopie in his arms and brushed a piece of hair out of her face as he carried her into the Hyperion.  Cordelia saw them, and smiled softly.  She walked over to Angel and kissed him on the lips, kissing the back of Hopie's head a moment afterward.

            "Momma," the sleeping child said, and Angel handed the little girl to her mother.  Hopie snuggled up against Cordy, and the woman grinned.

            "I knew it was past her bedtime," Cordy said in a whisper.

            "I'm not sleepy," the sleeping child mumbled.  Angel smiled.

            "Let's take her upstairs," he said to Cordy.  He turned to the others before going up to Hopie's room.

            "Can you guys survive without me here to mediate?" he asked.

            "Was that called mediating?" Maddy asked chipperly.  "Looked a lot like being all tall-dark-and-stranger-y to me."

            Cordy sent Angel a joking look.  "She's got you pegged," she said.  Angel glared at her.

            "Don't brood in my general direction.  I'm holding the baby," Cordy said, playing her trump card.  Angel couldn't help it.  He smiled.

            "Don't kiss anything while I'm gone," Angel said, teasing Maddy the way she had been teasing him.

            "Can't make any promises," Maddy called after him.

            Nicolaa jumped when she felt a hand on her neck.

            "Miss me?" Clay whispered in her ear.

            She narrowed her eyes at him.  "Possibly," she said.  "Don't sneak up on me like that."

            "So what vampires have you been kissing, Colette?" Maddy asked, avoiding staring at the get-a-roominess that was her brother and Nicolaa.

            Colette blushed.

            "Kissing vampires?" Clay said, raising an eyebrow.  "That's never a good idea."

            "Well, it might hypothetically sometimes be a good idea," Maddy said hastily.  "At the time."

            Clay met Connor's eyes, and he realized exactly what Maddy's words implied.

            "Bloody sodding hell, Maddy!" he yelled.

            Maddy grinned impishly at him.  "Language, Clayton," she reminded him in the exact same tone he always took with her.

            Clay took a deep breath, taking in the smell of Nicolaa's hair as he did so, and he slowly counted silently to ten.  His baby sister was enough to drive anyone crazy.  She was in a class all her own.

            Connor excused himself, glad that Maddy was now Clay's problem and not his own, and with one final glare in her general direction, he went upstairs to whisper his goodnights to Hopie.  From the first days after they had found her, when she'd cried to him during her nightmares, he'd made it a point to sit by her bed for at least a little while every night, though he tried to keep it a secret.

            When he got to Hopie's room, he saw Cordy and Angel sitting on the edge of Hopie's bed, Cordy gently tucking the covers in around the little girl, and Angel leaning in to press a single kiss to the little girl's forehead.  The vampire put his arm around Cordelia, and for a moment, Connor hated to spoil the poignancy of the cozy little family scene.

            Cordy saw him.  "Hey Connor," she said softly.  Connor didn't know why they were whispering.  Hopie could sleep through an apocalypse.  In fact, it was his guess that, within the next year, she probably would.

            "Hey," Connor muttered, sounding every bit as broody as his father.  

            "She's sleeping," Angel commented needlessly.  

            "Yeah," Connor replied.

            "Think she'll grow up to be like Maddy?" Connor asked, after a moment.

            "No," Angel said quickly.

            Cordy smiled.  "You know," she said, "I think I'd kind of like that."

            "But there are always two," Hopie said.  "You have to shaaaaaareeeeee."  The others fell silent as Hopie babbled on.  "Daddy, it's not nice to keep that coloring book all to yourself.  Connor likes Blue's Clues, too."

            "Do not," Connor muttered.

            "You have to share," Hopie muttered again.  "Like milk."

            "And there,:" Angel said, "you have it.  You have to share, like milk."

            "Sometimes," Cordy said, "I wonder if they brainwash these kids in kindergarten.  'Must share and think boys have cooties.'"

            Angel and Connor said nothing.  They knew, after all, that boys indeed did have cooties.  For a moment, they all sat there, around Hopie's bed, the entire family.

            When Anni, Jordy, and Spike got home, they were greeted by two surprises.  The first was that Oz wasn't there.  The second was that he'd taken the vamp toddler and his mother home with him.  Jordy wore his incredulous expression, which coincidentally enough, looked to the passing bystander, identical to both his "chilled-out" and "pensive" expressions.

            "Don't worry," Buffy told Jordy.  "Spike will take you home."

            Spike sent a tortured look toward the slayer.  "Do you hate me?" he asked.

            "Of course not," she replied.  "I just like to see you suffer."  Anni decided after a moment's reflection that she didn't want to spend any amount of time thinking about those words.

            "Slayer," Spike said, and then he stopped at the expression on Buffy's face, and his own eyes softened.  "All right then," he said, all chipper like.  "Give me his leash, and dog-boy and I will be on our way."

            If Jordy had been more into facial expressions, he would have rolled his eyes.  Somehow, he didn't need to.  The feeling came across perfectly clearly, even though he didn't so much as clinch his jaw.

            As Spike was leaving, Wes came into the room.  He looked at Anni, and satisfied that she was still fully clothes and wasn't covered in blood, he ascertained that patrolling had gone smoothly and that he didn't need to kill Jordy.  Spike, seeing Wes, glanced at Anni, and he hoped, for her sake, that whatever was going on kept itself nice and hidden until they could figure out what it was.

            Buffy turned to Anni.  "The girls are upstairs," she said.  "I'm not sure exactly what, but I'm pretty sure Joss flounce-age is involved."

            Wes looked at her.  "How can you tell?" he asked, truly curious.

            Buffy shrugged.  "Something about the way Chance was standing, I think," she said.  "She looked like she was thinking about something she shouldn't have been."

            Spike raised one eyebrow at Buffy, and Buffy shifted slightly in her stance.

            Again, Anni made a mental note to ignore what she could have easily inferred.

            "We're researching," Wes said, referring to himself, Anya, Giles, and Willow.  

            Anni caught his drift.  "I'll help," she said, "if you'll tell me what I'm looking for."

            "We're looking into the balance conundrum," Wes said.  Anni nodded, she was familiar with it.

            "Based on the ancient Amobyian, Kintaran, and Tristun philosophies that the laws of the natural world, now commonly known as the principles of physics, manifest themselves as well in the magical world," Anni said, her voice sounding almost robotic.

            Wes tried not to cringe.  For most of her life, Anni had known nothing except these prophesies, scrolls, and ancient texts.  It was what she had been raised for.

            "Very good," he said.  "We're trying to see if any of the philosophies, when cross-referenced with a Greek decoding of Tanzanian prophesies, predict a child to be used as the instrument of such magical balance.  Cale appears to be the universe's way of compensating for Connor's miraculous birth."

            Anni nodded, chewing on her bottom lip thoughtfully.  "Is Willow checking the online database?" she asked.

            Wes nodded.

            Together, the two of them walked back toward the kitchen where the others were researching.

            Spike turned to Jordy, and without a word, the two of them walked out the door.

            "I'll be back, slayer," Spike said.  "Heel," he said to Jordy.  Jordy stared at him, expressionless.  Spike stared back, and the two of them walked in complete silence.

            Upstairs, the girls were whispering.  

            "So if Cale is going to meet Connor," Chance said, "then, logically, he'd have to go to L.A."

            Dawn smiled at the thought of Connor and L.A., though the smile was not nearly as natural as it might once have been.  Since the Potentials had moved in, the two of them had grown increasingly distant.

            "Yeah," Dawn said.  "I guess we'd probably go too."

            Kendall looked at Dawn, wondering why she didn't sound more excited.  "I think going to L.A. could be fun," Kendall said.  She had a feeling that they could all get into a lot of trouble there.  "What do you think, Joss?" the brunette Potential asked flippantly, swinging the door closed so that Joss was again visible to the occupants of the room.

            Joss said nothing.  Still duct taped to the door, she was fast asleep.

            The image before them was ridiculous, and the three girls laughed silently.  Kendall grinned.  "Let's take her down," she said.  "Even Joss doesn't deserve to wake up duct taped to a door."

            Together, they made quick work of it.  Amazingly enough, Joss stayed asleep the entire time, caught deep in a dream the others knew nothing about.

            _Joss beamed up at the older girls.  They were all so neat, so strong, so wonderful.  _

_            "Joscelyn," Travers said, his voice rather sharp to the eight year olds ears._

_            Joss turned to look at him, wide-eyed.  The other girls said nothing.  They knew better than to interfere with training._

_            "Yes, Mr. Travers?" Joss asked, desperate to please the man, to fit in with the older girls.  It wasn't her fault she was only eight and everyone else was fifteen.  It wasn't her fault she'd been identified as a Potential so early._

_            "Your technique is off," Travers said, finding no joy in tormenting the child.  She didn't have enough spine to be much fun._

_            "Joscelyn," one of the older girls said.  "I'll show you how."_

_            "Thanks,Caroline," little Joss said shyly._

_            Then the scene shifted, and it was a different day._

_            The older girl, now eighteen, ducked down next to the now ten-year-old Joss.  "Bye, Joscelyn," she said simply._

_            Joss stared as the girl walked out the door.  If only Caroline had been called, then she might have taken Joss out of this place.  Instead, Caro was leaving, and the other girls would be leaving too, and Joss would be alone with Mr. Travers.  Again._

"You know," Dawn said in a whisper.  "When she sleeps, Joss looks almost human."

            Joss, curled up on the floor, said not a word.  Kendall, remaining silent, simply walked over to her bed and took off a pillow and a blanket.  Silently, she put the blanket over Joss and stuck the pillow under her head.

            Kody took the pink pillow that had somehow appeared on her bed in the past twenty-four hours, and she tested its weight a bit.  She'd thrown some of her things into a bag, but the truth was that she was mostly planning on buying all new things when she got to L.A.  She sighed.

            She'd go to Los Angeles, but not because Faith told her to.  Dakota was her own woman, and she'd do as she pleased.

            No, she'd go to L.A. because she'd realized one thing watching Lindsey and Faith downstairs.

            Her father had never shown her as much love as Lindsey had shown to Faith's bulging stomach.  In fact, Kody was willing to bet one of her many trust funds that her father hadn't shown any excitement at all when he'd found out she was on the way.

            Kody looked around the house.  There was no reason not to go to L.A.  After all, it was a party town, and she was feeling like a party kind of girl.  

            "You ready?" a voice asked from behind her.  Dakota turned.

            "Sure," she told Faith.  "Whatever, Happy."

            "You watch 7th Heaven?" Faith asked her.

            Dakota raised one eyebrow.  "You recognized the reference?" she asked.

            "This doesn't leave this room," Faith said.

            Dakota nodded.  "Agreed," she said.

            Both women stared out the window and saw the blonde flavor of the month sun bathing again.

            Kody tested the weight of the pillow, before calmly launching it out the window and knocking the woman again off the raft.

            Faith laughed.

            Kody leaned out the window.  "I think you're getting sunburnt," she yelled.  

            The blonde was indeed an interesting shade of red.  

            The woman cursed.  Faith leaned out the window as well.  "Is that any kind of language to use around a child, Clifford?" she asked.

            Kody refused to smile.  She said nothing, but thought of L.A. and all of the damage she could do there.

            Faith knew exactly what she was thinking, and as awful as it was, she couldn't wait.

            Lilah cursed, fluidly and heatedly, inside of her head. Mr. Kincaide stared at the woman, truly fascinated.

            "I'm sorry, Miss Morgan," he said smoothly.  "I'm afraid Dakota has probably already left for her new school."

            Lilah sent him a chilling smile.  "And what school is this?" she asked.

            "The Angel Academy of L.A.," the man replied smoothly, not quite sure what this woman wanted with his daughter.  Then again, she was offering him quite the business offer.  His corporation had been in need of a new law firm for some time, and it wasn't often that someone offered to fix stock prices as part of the deal.

            "And was the ambassador of this academy by any chance a woman who looked remarkably like Dakota?" Lilah asked, her voice bordering on dangerous.

            The man nodded.  "There was certainly a resemblance," he said.  "Now tell me more about this insider information you have."

            Lilah took a drink of her wine, clearly disgusted.  "You have no idea who she is, do you?" she asked him.

            "Should I?" Mr. Kincaide asked.

            Lilah didn't tell him that Faith was a slayer.  That would mean nothing to this man who lived in his own world of money and women.  She told  him, very smoothly and casually, the other piece of information she had gathered.

            "She's your daughter," Lilah said.

            "Kody?" Mr. Kincaide questioned.

            Lilah shook her head.  "Faith," she replied.

            Lindsey waited downstairs for Faith and Dakota.  He looked around.  This was the kind of house he understood: built on money, by money, for money.  This was the kind of house he swore that his child would never live in.

            It occurred to him for the second time that day that Dakota's father was no better than the father who had abandoned Faith before she was even born.  No better at all.

TBC… heheheeh, muahahahaha- did any of you see that coming?  More info on the true Faith/Dakota information, and Dakota comes to LA, along with the scoobies, in the next couple of chapters.  As for bad girl Anni… don't worry, she'll come out and play… very soon.  More Oz/Kate in the next chapter too, I promise.  I'd put some in now, but it's 3:30 in the morning, I'm exhausted, and this chapter is already nine pages long.

REVIEW for a quick update…  


	9. Thump thump

DISCLAIMER: I own only Hopie, Anni, Maddy, Nic, Colette, Clay, Chance, Joss, Kendall, Cale, and Dakota.  All other characters are the property of Joss Whedon et al.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry it's been so long.  I've just gotten over a bout of tests, I've been sickish, and when I actually had time to update, I just updated whichever story had the most reviews for the most recent chapter, and somehow, this fic ended up fourth on the "to update" list.  But now it's 2 AM, and that's as good as any time to be starting a chapter for you all, right?

Anyway, expect slightly shorter chapters, because 3500 word chaps are a little hard to write, and I am kind of tired.

Also, I think I lied last chapter.  The Sunnydale Gang isn't quite ready to go to LA this chapter.  I need one more chapter before they're ready for that, but I promise, in chapter ten…

Imzadi, Cale's father really isn't of any importance in the story, but for you I'll eventually have a Kate conversation about it.

Englishchick- the babies coming question… All I'll say is that Hopie was referring (a) to Cale, (b) to Willow's baby, and (c) to Faith's… there's a little more to it than that, but you wouldn't want me to spoil all the cryptic, now would you?  I will tell you that there aren't any Cordy or Buffy pregnancy in the works for this fic.  Maybe if I write a future one.

Firefly, remember, in this series of stories, Dawn wasn't made solely from Buffy… she was made of equal parts Buffy and Faith.  I think that might poke a few holes in your theory, but you'll see…

I think that answers all of the questions.  So, on with the chapter.

Thine Own Self: Chapter Nine

            "So," Spike said, his voice skating the careful line between conversational and awkward.

            Jordy looked up at him, his expression never changing.  

            "Been a werewolf long?" Spike asked, staring straight ahead.

            "A while," Jordy replied.  "Been a vampire long?"

            "A while," Spike replied.  "Any idea what's happening to Anni?"

            "No."  Jordy was the master of the one word answer.

            For a moment, the two walked in silence, and then Spike broached a new, more comfortable topic.  "So what do you think of those new retractable leashes, pup?  Pretty handy little buggers, aren't they?"  

            Jordy looked at Spike, his facial expression not changing at all visibly, and yet, somehow, the vampire thought the boy looked somehow more devious than usual.  "They can be," Jordy replied, his voice steady.

            Spike wrinkled his brow a little.  What in the world did the little wolfie mean by that?

            Willow's hands flew diligently over the keys.  She sighed.  "A whole lot of nothing," she said, frustration clear in her voice.

            "Yes, well," Giles said, resisting the urge to take off his glasses and clean them, "you are pregnant."  He shot Willow a comfortable look.

            "What's that supposed to mean?" Willow asked, as if she hadn't been using her pregnancy as an excuse for everything from eating Dawn's Lucky Charms to accidentally recording over one of Spike's Passions tapes.

            Giles and Wesley exchanged a private eye-rolling look, and Willow, returning to the computer screen, huffed, "Don't get all eye roll-y with me.  Eyes are for looking not for rolling in that scoffy way."  She paused a moment.  "Not that eyes can scoff, unless of course they're newt eyes in which case…" she trailed off as everyone stared at her.

            "Hey!" she said.  "Don't look at me like that.  I'm…" She caught the words before they left her mouth and pushed down the impulse to remind everyone that she was very, very pregnant.  "I'm babbling," she said finally.

            Ignoring Wes and Giles, Willow turned to Anni.  "Have you found anything?" she asked her.

            Anni, entranced in two volumes that Giles had already looked through, didn't respond.  She bit her lower lip in concentration.

            "These texts appear to be from era and region of the balance philosophers," she said, "there's even some indication that they are written by students of _krysthanim_, one of the great schools of balance magic and myths of the time, but I don't see a single reference in any of them to any of the tenets of The Balance."  Wes hated the tone of his sister's voice.  When she went into research mode, Anni sounded so mechanical, completely devoid of any emotion.  Wes gritted his teeth and tried not to think of his sister at four, five, six years old, under strict tutelage and translating texts that his parents could not.  

            "Yes," Giles said.  "I noticed the same thing."

            "Perhaps a spell?" Anni suggested, looking at Willow.  "To concentrate our efforts in the right direction."

            "If I knew a spell like that," Willow said reasonably, "I would have been using it all along."

            "If the information is contained in a book," Anni reasoned, "it's in some way tangible."

            Willow caught on.  "And if it's tangible, and we can't find it," Willow continued, "then technically it's lost, and a Pythian spell, with a few adaptations, might work."

            Anni nodded.  "I believe I've heard of such things being used before," she said, a slightly guilty tone entering her voice.

            Wes recognized the tone and what it meant.  "As in you've used them before?" he asked, shuddering at the thought of a single person trying to tap into the Pythian force for finding lost things.  

            "Once or twice," Anni replied.  Wes sighed.  "Give me a break," Anni said, sounding more American than usual.  "I was nine at the time."

            Wes concentrated on taking a nice, calming breath.  "And your tutor?" he asked.

            "Was otherwise occupied," Anni replied, leaving out the fact that she had arranged for it to be so.  She looked at Willow.  "Do you want to, or should I?"  

            Willow, seeing it as an opportunity to see gauge how Anni's control level had developed, suggested that they perform the spell jointly, and as their hands touched, Willow felt the younger girl's power: familiar, youthful, and distinctly Anni.

            "Lost in the void, we call on thee Pythia to light the way," Willow began to say the words, and as she did, her hand grew warmer, throbbing with the power sizzling threw Anni's body: strange and ancient, dark.  Willow jerked her hand back, the words frozen on her lips.

            Anni's eyes glazed over as she stared off into space for a moment.  Suddenly, she slammed one open book on top of another one.  Wes, Willow, and Giles stared at her.

            "Sorry," the girl drawled.  "I didn't mean to startle you all, but when you're wound as tightly as this group…"  Anni trailed off and shrugged.

            "Huh?" Willow said, pronouncing it as a word rather than a mere sound.

            "I second that," Wes said.

            Anni smiled at them both.  "Nothing," she said.  "Nothing at all.  I'm not really needed here, am I?  I think I'd prefer finding something elsewhere to screw."  She paused for a moment.  "Or kill."

            "Annabella," Wes said, wondering what kind of joke his sister was playing.

            Anni turned, throwing her head back haughtily as she did.  "There aren't many things that aren't either screwable or killable," she commented.  She raised an eyebrow at Wes.  "I imagine you know that quite well," she commented.

            A muscle in Wes's jaw clinched at the obvious reference to Lilah.  

            _There's something wrong here, Willow thought to him.  __Some power.__  Something that doesn't feel like Anni.  Willow looked at the girl again.  __And yet, it is Anni._

Anni rolled her eyes.  "You two have a nice little mental conversation, and perhaps a nice screw afterwards, as I'm sure that's the one thing Willow's pregnancy doesn't prevent her from accomplishing.  Meanwhile, Giles can be sexually frustrated while he resists the compulsion to clean his glasses.  I'm going out," she said, picking up her jacket off the chair.  

Wes's arm was on her shoulder in an instant, his grip strong, his voice low.  "You're not going anywhere," he said.  "I don't know what's happening, but..."

Anni cut him off.  "Bored now," she said, sending him flying across the room with a series of lightning fast movements.  

"Impede," Willow said, and Anni found herself suddenly unable to move.

Dakota shifted in her seat.  She hated airplanes.  At the sound of Faith's retching from the next seat, Kody amended her thought to add that it was a given that Faith hated airplanes more.

A steward came by, smiling in a way that made Kody's skin crawl with the icky sweetness of it all.  She had the distinct urge to tell him exactly what he could do with those stupid airplane peanuts.

"Can I get you some water?" the steward asked Faith, smiling.

"You can wipe that grin off your face and get me some ginger ale," Faith muttered.

Kody raised one eyebrow.  Ginger Ale wasn't exactly the badass drink of choice.

The steward returned a moment later with a tiny cup of Ginger Ale.  He handed the cup to Faith and then, putting one hand on his left hip, he tilted his head to the side questioningly.  "I remember you," he said.  "You flew in here yesterday.  Right?"

"Yes," Faith replied, daggers in her voice.  Somehow, stewards and stewardesses always rubbed her the wrong way.  

"You weren't pregnant then," the steward said.  He looked at Faith's stomach, which had grown considerably in the past hours.

Faith looked at Lindsey.  "Yes she was," he said smoothly.  "Though it's kind of you to pretend that you hadn't noticed."

"No, really," the steward said.  "She wasn't pregnant before."

Faith grabbed him by his lapels.  "Listen, Skippy," she started.  Lindsey put his hand on her arm, and she released the steward.  Dakota snorted.

"You know," she said, thoroughly enjoying the show.  "I think she'd like some more to drink."

Faith and Dakota sent identical stares at the steward, and he went to do their bidding.  Coming back, he handed Faith another glass.

"You two must be sisters, right?" he asked, taking in the remarkable resemblance between them.

"Sort of," Faith replied.

"No," Dakota said flatly, remembering that she still rather had a chip on her shoulder about the whole Faith trying to be dominant situation.

The steward looked as if he were about to suggest that the two just had to be sisters, but remembering the results of his 'you weren't pregnant before' conversation, he made the wise decision to keep his mouth shut.

Dakota looked out the window, and she wondered if L.A. would be as good of a playground as she thought it would be.  She smiled slightly.  A new town meant new challenges: stores that she hadn't shop-lifted from, pools that she hadn't skinny-dipped in, boys that she hadn't seduced and rejected.  

Faith recognized the look on Kody's face, and thought, not for the first time, that Los Angeles was in for a whole lot of trouble.

Getting over her nausea, she rested her head on Lindsey's shoulder, as he smoothed the sweaty hair off of her face and wrapped his other arm protectively around her bulging stomach.

Faith looked at Kody again, and she had to laugh.  Those monks hadn't known what they were doing when they'd decided to create a second Faith.

"Excuse me?" Mr. Kincaide said politely.  "Kody is my only child."

Lilah took a drink of her martini, and she sat it down, her eyes locking coldly onto his.  "Except of course for any children that might have resulted from sexual escapades in Boston in the summer of 1979."

Mr. Kincaide shrugged.  A man of his status couldn't very well be expected to keep track of all of his dalliances.  "That would explain the resemblance," he said.  Then he shrugged.  "It's just as well," he said.

Lilah ignored that rather useless comment.  She was ready, in fact, to dismiss this man as useless altogether.  If Dakota was indeed like Faith, there had to be other ways of getting to the girl.  After all, Faith had once been a rogue slayer, and that certainly suggested that Dakota might be amenable to certain propositions.

In one quick swig, Lilah finished her martini.

Mr. Kincaide looked at her with appraising eyes.  She certainly wasn't his normal type, but something about the woman intrigued him.  "Perhaps we could continue this discussion at my place?" he suggested.

Lilah shrugged.  Why not? She thought.  It wasn't as if she had anything in particular to lose.

Kate got out of the shower, her blonde hair wet and clinging to her shoulders, wrapped in a towel.  She walked over to her suitcase and took out an oversized t-shirt and a pair of snoopy boxers, pulling them on silently, careful not to waken Cale, who was curled up at the bottom of the bed.

She heard an almost inaudible knock at the door, and she went to answer it.  Oz looked at her, raising one eyebrow a fraction of a centimeter at the snoopy pajamas.  Somehow he hadn't pictured the woman who seemed so guarded wearing boxers that boasted both Snoopy and Woodstock.

He handed her a pillow.  She took it, and for a moment, the two of them looked at each other in silence, their faces impenetrable masks.

"Thank you," Kate mouthed, careful not to wake Cale.

Oz shrugged, and she correctly interpreted the gesture as his equivalent of 'you're welcome.'  

For a moment, her eyes rested on his lips, but she pushed even the thought of the thought out of her mind.  Cale was her life now; he was what was important.  She didn't trust men.  Not with Cale, not with herself.

Oz casually and gently pushed a piece of her wet hair out of her face.  "It was covering your eyes," he said simply.

"And we couldn't have that," Kate whispered back wryly.

"Worse things have happened," Oz replied in a whisper, "but their numbers are few."

Kate didn't allow herself to smile, even as her heart beat just a bit faster.

"Goodnight," Oz said plainly, and he turned around before she could say anything.  Kate walked to the bed, hugging the pillow firmly to her chest.  She put the pillow down and climbed into bed, wrapping her arms around her son and pushing back the sense of panic and the hard tears that she refused to allow to flow.

"Goodnight," she whispered, her voice caught in her throat, but the words somehow hanging in the air.

"Night, Mommy," a little voice said.

Kate looked down.  "You're supposed to be asleep," she told her son.  He squirmed to turn around and look into her face.

"Thump thump," he said, pointing to her chest.  "Fast."  He gave her an adorable baby grin, and she silently cursed his vampire hearing.  Wiggling around some more, he fell back asleep, sprawled halfway across her pillow.

Kate closed her eyes but opened them a moment later, and like so many nights, she stared at the ceiling, guilt, anger, and something else heavy in her heart.

Clay finally gave up trying to convince Maddy of the error of her ways.  "Go to sleep," he told her, his head starting to ache a little.

She looked as if she was thinking about it for a moment, and then she nodded.  "Okay," she replied with a huge grin.  Clay knew better than to trust that grin.

"What are you thinking?" Clay asked him.

"Do you want the PG-13 version?" she asked him politely.

"Maddy," Clay replied through clenched teeth.  "You aren't thirteen yet."

"You know," Maddy said thoughtfully, a teasing glint entering her eyes.  "Nicolaa's old enough for the NC-17 version.  That's what they call it here."  Maddy looked delighted with her newfound knowledge.

Nic blushed furiously, the rest of her face remaining calm.  She'd spent years masking her emotions, and she was still quite good at it.  

Colette tugged on Maddy's arm.  "Come on," she said, taking pity on Nicolaa.  "Let's go."

Maddy instead turned her grin to Gunn.  "Any chance you'd like to participate in a little experiment I'm conducting?" she asked.

Gunn looked back at her, knowing that she couldn't be asking what it sounded like she was asking.

"Purely for scientific purposes," Maddy clarified.  "It might be important for me as a slayer to know how a vampire kiss compares to, say for instance, a worldly street fighter kiss."  Maddy tried to stifle her grin.  She widened her eyes to make everyone think she was very serious about this little experiment, though if Gunn agreed, having two working eyes and a functioning brain, she'd readily take him up on the offer.

"Why don't you go to bed," Gunn suggested, a little disturbed, just as Maddy had meant him to be.

"Are you going to bed?" Maddy asked.

Gunn nodded absentmindedly.  

"Tell Fred I say hi," Maddy said, a wicked grin in her face.

Clay, catching onto her game, just smiled at her.  "Go to bed, Madeline," he said.

"I certainly will, Clayton," she replied, and Clay was reminded once again that his grinning little sister was not to be trusted.

"Your bed," he clarified.  Maddy shrugged.  It had been worth a shot.

Upstairs, Cordy and Angel had exited Hopie's room for 'special grown up time' or 'fun fun wrestling,' as the child was wont to call it.  Connor stayed a while longer, lying next to Hopie.  She'd been the first thing in this world that he'd really loved, the only thing that had ever made him really feel like a part of something, and now, he was in the middle of everything, part big brother, part knight in shining armor, part confused teenage boy.

"Why aren't you sleeping, My Connor?" Hopie asked, a yawn in her little voice.

"Don't know," Connor replied.  "Go back to sleep."

"I can sing you a song," Hopie offered.

"You don't have to," Connor replied.

"Want to," Hopie replied.

Anni looked around, moving only her eyes as the rest of her body had somehow become completely incapacitated.  Wesley's expression was a mixture between confusion and anger.  Willow looked concerned.  Giles was trying desperately not to take his glasses off and clean them.  

Anni tried to say something, but the words came out as little squeaky sounds instead.

Willow looked at the girl thoughtfully, and with a wave of her hand, dismissed the spell.

"Care to tell me what just took place here?" Wes asked.

"I was rather hoping you could tell me that," Anni said.  Wes and Willow exchanged a private glance, and Anni couldn't tell whether they believed her question to be in earnest or not.

"The spell didn't work," Anni surmised.  No one said anything.  "And I somehow greatly offended you all?" Anni conjectured.

Wes walked over to her and lifted her chin with two fingers, bringing her eyes to look into his hardened ones.  For a moment, brother stared at sister, and Anni began to feel that she'd somehow crossed a line, though which line and what type of crossing, she hadn't the faintest idea.

"You're wrong, Anni," Willow said, her voice taking everyone by surprise.

"You weren't offended?" Anni asked.

"The spell did work," Willow corrected, gesturing to the books that Anni had slammed together.

"The reason we aren't finding what we need," Willow said, looking at the texts and her eyes opening in an academic epiphany, "is that we're not looking at these texts right.  We're looking for balance prophesies, so it only makes sense…"

"That the prophesies would occur in balanced parts," Wes finished.

Willow set about deciphering the discovery, and Wes let go of Anni's chin.

Hopie's childish singing voice filled the air.  

"The ants go marching two by two 

hurrah, hurrah

the ants go marching two by two

hurrah, hurrah

the ants go marching two by two, 

the little one stops to tie his shoe

and they all go marching down

down

to get under the ground

to get out of the rain 

boom, boom…"

Before she reached the third 'boom,' Hopie noticed that Connor had indeed falling asleep, and pressing a kiss to his forehead, she happily snuggled down and fell into a deep slumber herself.

TBC… ARG 3300 words… guess I didn't do a very good job with the shortening, which explains why it's now 4 AM.  Anyway, next up, Scoobies come to LA, more A/C fluff, finally some Spuffy moments, much more W/W and L/F, Dakota meets the Fang Gang, including Connor and Maddy, and Anni's situation is taken to a whole new level.

REVIEW… please… I'm tired.


	10. Ain't seen nothing yet

DISCLAIMER: I only own Hopie, Anni, Maddy, Nic, Colette, Chance, Kendall, Joss, Cale, Clay, and Dakota.  All others are property of Joss Whedon et al.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Another chapter for you guys.  I don't know how long it will be, because I'm kind of tired, but a lot of exciting thing should be happening in this chapter, and it's one I've been wanting to write for a while, so here it goes.

 Thine Own Self: Chapter Ten

            Dakota Kincaide looked around, her dark ponytail swinging gently behind her.  "Not bad," she pronounced, "if you go for the huge mausoleum type accommodations."

            Faith suppressed a grin, recognizing the lazy sarcastic drawl in Dakota's voice as her own.

            "It's not like a mausoleum at all," a voice said from the side of the room.  Faith looked over to see Angel.  

            "And you would know," she said wryly.  Angel nodded.

            He walked up to Kody.  "I'm Angel," he said, his voice low.

            Dakota gave him a quick once over, not being in the least bit subtle about the fact that she was trying to decide just what she thought about him.  "I'm Dakota," she said finally.

            Angel looked at Faith.  "She's the one?" he asked.

            "No," Kody drawled, the hairs on the back of her neck standing up slightly, "the resemblance is a coincidence, I'm a hooker, Lindsey's my new pimp, and I'm guessing you're one of the gigolos."

            Angel stared at the fourteen year old, and it occurred to him for the first time that having a fourteen year old Faith living at the hotel might be a whole new kind of experience.

            Angel turned his attention back to Faith.  He looked at her stomach.  "You're… " he trailed off for a moment.  "Pregnant?" he said, thinking unconsciously of Darla's pregnancy with Connor.

            "Give the man a cookie," Kody said, her voice carrying throughout the hotel.  "Where can I put my stuff?"

            "I'll show you your room," a voice said from the stairway.  Dakota took a moment and looked from Angel to Connor and back to Angel again.  She rolled her eyes.  "Two for the price of one," she said suggestively.  "Must be my lucky day."

            Grabbing one of her bags and tossing it at Connor, Dakota grabbed the other two.  "Lead on, Junior," she said.

            When she was out of ear shot, Angel turned his attention back to Faith.  "Well that was pleasant," he said.

            Faith grinned unabashedly.  "You're just mad because she made you one of Lindsey's gigolos."

            Lindsey frowned slightly at that disturbing idea, and Faith turned to kiss his chest, comforting him.

            "Hey," Angel said, "I'm the gigolo here."  The two stared at him.  "I mean I'm the one she accused of being… never mind.  Were you like that when you were that age?" Angel asked Faith.

            "I was worse," Faith replied.  She laughed a little.  "Honestly, Angel, I don't think you've seen anything yet."

            Angel rested his hand on Faith's stomach, looking off into space.  "Honestly," he said somberly, "I think you're right.  We haven't seen anything yet."

            Upstairs, Hopie was just waking up from a good nights sleep.  She looked around for Connor, discovering that he was already up.  She stretched, bounced off the bed, and walked over to her mirror.  She opened her mouth widely and tested each of her teeth with her index finger.

            No wiggle.  No wiggle.  Finally, one of her bottom front teeth wiggled.  She smiled and then continued to poke her other teeth.

            Hearing footsteps in the hallway, the little girl followed them, her hair mussed from the night's sleep and her night gown clinging to her legs just a bit.  Catching up to Connor, she let out a war cry and leaped at him.  Just in time, the older boy whirled around and caught her in the air.

            Hopie wrapped her arms around him.  "Morning, My Connor," she said.

            Connor, his face expressionless, replied, "Good morning, Hopie."  For good measure, he tickled the little girl, and she screamed with laughter.  Dakota stared at the two of them uneasily.

            "You look like Aunt Faith," Hopie said to the new girl candidly.  "But you don't smell like her."

            "I'll take that as a compliment," Kody said, checking out her surroundings, taking mental notes of the things that could be easily stolen.

            Hopie turned her attention back to Connor.  "I have a loose tooth," she said proudly.  Hopie looked at Dakota expectantly.

            Kody, awkward with kids, responded, "Cool."

            "It's not a fang," Hopie remarked sadly.  "Maybe the tooth fairy likes fangs better than real teeth and maybe she woulda gave me more for a fang, but it's not a fang, and you aren't giving Connor fluffy eyes."  

Dakota looked at the child, clueless as to what the little girl was talking about.

            "All of the girls give Connor fluffy eyes, but you don't," Hopie said, batting her eyelashes in a very good imitation of Connor's many wide-eyed adorers.

            Kody looked around.  "I don't give anyone fluffy eyes," she said finally, setting her bags on the floor of the room Connor had led them to.  She sent a look in Connor's direction that made him a bit uncomfortable.  "Fluffy eyes have nothing to do with it."  Kody immediately walked over to the window and gauged how hard it would be to escape from it if the situation should come to that.  It was doable.

            Stuffing her hands in her jean pockets, Kody turned her attention back to the other occupants of the room.  "Nice meeting you and all," she said, "but I've got a new city to explore, people I haven't screwed yet."

            Connor looked at Hopie and then glared at the new girl.  "You better not say that around Cordy," he said.  "She gets mad when people say things like that around Hopie."

            "I'm so scared," Kody said, her voice dripping with easy sarcasm.

            "Maybe you should be," a voice said from the doorway.  Kody turned to look at Cordelia.

            Hopie wiggled down from Connor's arms and ran over to Cordelia.  "Morning, Momma," she said.  Cordy picked her daughter up, never taking her eyes off of the girl who looked so much like Faith had when she'd come to Sunnydale that it took Cordy's breath away.

            Kody looked at Connor.  "Another one?" she asked, stunned at how many twenty-somethings there were around this place.  "Damn, they multiply like bunnies, don't they?"

            "Bunnies have ulterior motives and can only be defeated through monetary acquisition," Hopie recited.

            "Anya," Connor and Cordy said at the same time by way of explanation.

            "Whatever," Kody said.  Feeling the sudden urge to make Connor uncomfortable, she walked up to him and stood very close, her eyes never leaving his.  She smiled a slow, seductive smile.  She was Dakota Kincaide, self-destruction girl.  It was what she did.

            Cordy handed Hopie to Connor.  "Can you give us a minute?" she asked.  Connor shrugged, and carried the little girl downstairs to see Angel.

            Cordy looked at Dakota.  "You've got this tough-girl-I-don't-care-femme-fatal vibe down pretty well," Cordy commented good naturedly, "but I knew the real deal back in Sunnydale when Faith was younger, and you don't impress me."  A bit of Queen C entered her voice, and for a moment, Cordy felt like she was talking to Faith, not this new girl.  "Don't even think about hurting my daughter."

            Dakota laughed, that casual laugh Faith had always used to keep people distanced.  "Ease up, Queenie," she said, her voice an echo of Faith's.  "I like kids fine, and honestly, Patches, if you stay out of my way, I'll stay out of yours."

            Cordelia raised one eyebrow.  Patches?  After a moment, the seer left the room, and Kody prepared to leave, unescorted, to get to know the city a bit.  Rummaging through one of her bags, she took out some dark red lipstick and put it on.

            "Wicked," a voice said from the doorway.  "Can I try some?"

            Kody turned warily toward the door to see a rather petite British girl standing there, an infectious grin on her face.  Kody handed her the lipstick.  "Why not?" she said.  "Knock yourself out, kid."

            "I'm Maddy," Maddy said, expertly applying the lipstick.  "Bloody sodding hell, my brother will freak when he sees this lipstick."

            "Screw him," Dakota said.  Maddy looked at the new girl, liking her already.  "Who knows," Kody mused.  "Maybe I will."

            Maddy made a mental note to remember that line.  Kody opened the window and looked down.  Maddy followed suit.

            "So," she said amicably, "where are we going?"

            Kody looked at her.  "We're not going anywhere," she said.  "I'm going out."

            "And that's going to piss everyone off," Maddy said.  "I'm all for it."

            Kody climbed out the window, making it safely to the ground via the fire escape.  She sighed when she heard another set of feet land beside her.  Maddy grinned up at the older girl.

            "One thing you'll learn about me," Maddy said.  "I'm very persistent, and very thorough, and I'm quite certain that there are guys in this city that I have not yet kissed."

            Kody sighed.  When in Rome, she thought, do as the Romans do.

            Kate woke that morning to the sounds of fighting.  Automatically, her hand flew to the bed beside her.  She bolted up in bed.  Cale wasn't there.  She looked around, her blonde hair flying into her face.  

            Getting out of bed, she walked quickly toward the noise, ready to kill anyone who messed with her baby boy.

            "Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr," came a baby growl from the next room.

            "That's a big growl for such a little man," came the gently teasing reply.  Seconds later, Kate heard Cale burst into giggles, and she walked into the room in time to see the little boy launch himself valiantly at the thirteen-year-old werewolf.  Jordy caught him easily, and the two wrestled, Jordy being very careful with the tiny vampire child.

            Oz walked into the room behind Kate.  "No biting," he said lightly in the general direction of the rough housing children.  He turned his attention to Kate.

            "Willow called," he said.  "She says there might be a way to help Cale.  It involves us going to LA.  We need Connor."

            Kate tried not to look into his eyes, but she couldn't help it.  "When do we leave?" she asked plainly.

            "Within the hour," Oz replied.  They stood there for a moment, listening to the sound of rough housing and trying not to acknowledge the electricity in the air between them.

            Cale screamed with laughter again, and his little baby face vamped, his fangs becoming more prominent, though he still maintained his cheery, cherubic smile.

            Kate's face registered no change, but Oz could hear her take in a very shallow breath.  

            "He's just a little guy," Oz said.

            "I know," Kate replied.  "I'm going to pack."  She left the room, and after a moment, Oz joined in the wrestling, carefully pinning both boys to the ground.

            "Mommy sad," Cale commented.

            Oz nodded.  "Yeah," he said.  "I think so too."

            Jordy squirmed and attempted to throw Oz off of him.  Oz opened his eyes a bit wider, the equivalent of an Oz-grin, and pinned the smaller werewolf back to the ground.

            With their enhanced hearing, all three of them heard Kate sit down on the bed in the next room.

            "I'm going with you," Wes said for a second time.  "You're very pregnant with my child, and there's no way I'm letting you go to LA to perform some ancient ritual that I'm not even convinced was properly translated, without me."

            Willow looked at Wes.  "You're so cute when you're stodgily overprotective," she said.

            "I'm not stodgy," Wes said sullenly.  

            Willow stood on her tiptoes and kissed his lips softly.  "Maybe just a little," he conceded.

            He kissed her back, and then sat down into one of the kitchen chairs, pulling her protectively into his lap.  With one hand on her pregnant stomach and the other wrapped around her shoulders, Wes sat there, silent for a minute.

            _Thinking about Anni? Willow asked him silently as the Potentials, Dawn, and Anni filed into the kitchen.  _

            _Yes, Wes said.  _She's been through a lot, and she's almost thirteen.  She's smart, she's stubborn, and to top it off, she has an immense amount of power and perhaps enough repressed anger to do something with it.  __

_            And you're worried she will?_ Willow asked mentally.  Wes leaned his head into her shoulder.

            _I'm worried about what I'll have to do to stop her, he replied mentally._

            _I'm worried, Willow replied silently, thinking of the power surge she had felt when Anni had laid hands on her stomach, __that what we're dealing with isn't Anni at all._

_            I'm not leaving her here_, Wes thought.  _She's liable to burn down the house while scantily clad._

Willow tried not to smile and failed.  _And the scantily clad part is somehow more disturbing to you, she told him silently, poking him in the ribs._

            Wes very manfully repressed the urge to giggle at her ticklish poking.

            "Anni," Wes said.  "We're going to LA."

            Buffy walked into the room, a silly look on her face that Dawn didn't even want to try to decipher, because she guessed it had a little to do with the oscillation between content and cockiness she'd already seen on Spike's face that morning.  "So are we," Buffy told Chance, who had just stuffed a very large spoonful of Captain Crunch into her mouth.

            "Faith found her demi," Buffy continued.  "We want you two to meet, since you're, you know, related in a kind of weird, not related at all way."

            Dawn looked at Buffy.  "Technically," she said.  "Since I'm half Faith and this new girl is Faith, I'm more related to her than Chance is, so I should go to."

            "And make sure Connor is keeping his distance from the LA Potentials?" Buffy asked, rolling her eyes at her little sister.

            "Maybe," Dawn replied.

            Spike came into the room.  "I'm game," he said.  "Wouldn't want to send my ladies off without a proper escort.  No offense, British."

            Wes, tracing circles with his index finger on Willows large belly, didn't reply.

            "We might need Giles," Buffy continued, "and Anya said something about needing to talk to Hopie."  Buffy turned her attention to the remaining members of the household.

            "You two okay here by yourselves?" she asked Kendall and Joss.  A moment later, Buffy realized that she'd just proposed leaving Kendall alone, unattended with Joss for an extended period of time.  

            Kendall looked at Joss, whose mouth was open, ready to relate the whole duct-tape-to-the-door thing in the most vindictive way possible, but Joss closed her mouth without saying a word and went back to moving her spoon slowly around in her  Lucky Charms, careful not to take a bite.  She always felt a little queasy the morning after the dreams.  

            Kendall shrugged and decided that maybe Joss deserved some flounceage relief, if only for the brief period until she again called Dawn a reject, Anni a freak, or Chance a nothing.  

            "How about you two come too?" Buffy said.  "We'll take a few cars and make a trip of it."

            "Sure," Kendall said, thinking that she'd missed Maddy and Nic and wondering how Colette was holding up.

            "Whatever," Joss mumbled, watching the cereal pieces in her bowl swirling.  A marshmallow heart floated by a four leaf clover.  Joss let her spoon sink into the bowl and carried the bowl over to the sink, rinsing it into the sink, heart, clover, and all.  She wasn't ever the lucky one.

            Connor put Hopie down, and the little girl ran toward Faith, throwing her arms around her Champion's legs and hugging them fiercely.

            "Missed you, Aunt Faith," Hopie said.  "There was a clown vamp and I have a loose tooth, and Maddy's making fluffy eyes at everyone and I sang Connor a lullaby and Momma's being all Momma Bear around Little Faith and…"  Hopie trailed off to catch her breath.

            Lindsey knelt down next to the little girl.  "Don't I get a hug?" he asked.

            Hopie hugged him.  "Course," she replied, taking in the smell that was distinctly Uncle Lindsey.

            "What do you mean Momma's all Momma Bear around Little Faith?" Angel asked.  Hopie looked at him as if that sentence were very self-explanatory.

            "Her name is Kody," Faith told Hopie.  "I don't think she'd like being called Little Faith."

            "Nope nope," Hopie said.  "I don't think she would either."

            Reaching up, Hopie patted Faith's stomach.  "Hello, babies," she said happily.

            Faith peered down at her.  The child didn't seem to find it the least bit odd that Faith had become very pregnant over night.

            "Good luck," Hopie reminded her.  "Like pretzels.  And babies."  Hopie grinned and then began spinning around in circles, making herself dizzy, and giggling all the while.

            "Spinning, spinning, lots of babies coming, spinning, spinning," the little girl chanted.  She fell down.  "We all fall down," she recited.  

            Angel raised one eyebrow at Connor.  Lots of babies coming?

            "Don't look at me," Connor said.

             Lilah Morgan straightened her jacket, and without casting a second glance at the man asleep in the bed, she picked up her briefcase and left the room.

            It hadn't meant anything.  She hadn't felt anything, but for that one moment, she'd been the only one in the world to exist, and in that moment of solitude, she'd escaped loneliness.

            Lilah shook her head.  It didn't make any sense.  She wasn't about to sit around psychoanalyzing herself.  It was just a fairly decent lay.  That was all.  Her cell phone rang, and Lilah answered it, the power returning to her voice as she remembered that Wolfram and Hart was all hers.

            "Where is she?" she asked, referring to Dakota, and promising herself that she'd dismember any minion who failed to read her mind regarding this question.

            "Currently at a local mall," the minion replied.  Lilah knew that there was a reason that she employed primarily psychic, conscienceless Harvard Law grads.

            "Is she alone?" Lilah asked.

            "No," the minion replied.

            "Kill whoever's with her and bring her to me," Lilah said.  "I'll be back in an hour."  She slammed the cell phone shut and went to find the mystic who would teleport her back.  Air travel was so overrated these days.

            The minion made a face at the phone, but then set out to carry through with Lilah's instructions.

            Kody leaned against the banister of the balcony, casually watching the people who walked by.  Maddy mimicked her posture.  Slowly, Kody was warming up to the younger girl.

            "That one," Dakota said, tilting her head slightly toward a teenage boy who was walking by.  In one smooth movement, Kody walked over to him, pushed him up against the wall, and pressed her body close to his.  She kissed him, hard, and broke off after a long few seconds.  She smiled at him.

            "Happy Birthday," she said.

            The boy's jaw dropped open.  "It's not my bir-irthday," he stammered.

            Kody shrugged.  "Well, damn," she said.  "My mistake." With those words, Kody sauntered back to where Maddy was standing.  The younger girl beamed at Dakota.

            "That was bitching," she said, her voice sounding very proper.

            "You get too much of a kick out of saying those words," Dakota commented.  "If you make it sound like a big deal that you're saying them, you might as well not say them at all."

            Maddy nodded and put a very chilled out expression on her face.  "Bitching," she said in her best 'chilled out' voice.

            "Your turn," Dakota said, when a boy who looked to be about fourteen walked by.  Maddy slinked toward him as Dakota had and pushed him up against the wall.  She was getting good at this.  The boy opened his mouth, but before he could say a work, Maddy closed her eyes and pressed a kiss to his lips.

            Afterwards, she opened her eyes.  "You're an angel," the boy said, looking at her like he'd just received the most amazing kiss of his life.

            Maddy looked back at him glumly.  "I was hoping for more along the lines of temptress," she told him honestly before trudging back to Dakota.

            "He said I was an angel," Maddy said darkly.

            "Impressive," Kody replied.  

Maddy scuffed her foot glumly.  "Bet no one ever calls you an angel," she pointed out sullenly.

Dakota smiled wryly.  "No," she said softly.  "They don't."

"I don't think either of you looks particularly angelic right now," a voice said from beside them.

"Hi Gunn," Maddy said brightly, turning to look completely at him.  "What are you doing here?"

"Just watching the little show you two are putting on," Gunn replied, his tone distinctly not amused.  "I see The Lips and Faith's double taking a hike out a window," he continued, "I figure I'll follow them."

A huge grin spread across Maddy's face.  "The Lips," she said, a satisfied expression on her face.

"That wasn't meant to be a compliment," Gunn clarified.  As Kody turned to leave, he grabbed her arm.

She looked at him, her eyes dark.  "I don't think you want to do that," she said.

"Really?" Gunn said.

As the two of them stared at each other, Maddy let out a piercing scream.  Instantly, both of them turned around to see the younger girl being carried away by several robed men.

They both went after her, but instantly, they were overcome by opponents of both the demon and human varieties.  By the time their opponents were on the floor, Maddy was gone.

"Wolfram and Hart bastards," Gunn muttered.  "Come on," he said darkly to Dakota.  "We have to get back to the hotel."  Kody, in a state of shock, agreed.

When the minion saw the girl her minions brought her, she gritted her teeth.  A person didn't get to be a minion's minion based on a high IQ, and the situation currently in front of her was proof enough of that.

They'd brought her the wrong girl.  Lilah had wanted Dakota Kincaide.  Instead, she'd gotten Lady Madeline Claymore, also known as a whole lot of trouble.

Dakota and Gunn arrived back at the house moments after the Sunnydale gang arrived.  Connor, Hopie, Angel, Faith, Lindsey, and Cordy came outside to meet them, and as Cale ran on chubby baby legs instinctively up to Connor, Chance slowly approached Dakota.  Connor knelt down next to the little boy, and not knowing exactly why, he held up his hand for the child to touch with his tiny fingers.  Chance put her hand on Kody's shoulder.

In that moment, there was a loud noise, and a dark beam of light connected the points at which Chance and Kody and Cale and Connor were touching.  Standing in between to the two pairs, Anni was caught in the beam, and it threw her across the room.

"Anni!" Jordy yelled.

"Yes," Anni said from his left, standing up on shaky legs.

 "Hello, Lover," another Anni said darkly from his right.

"Wolfram and Hart got Maddy," Gunn said, ignoring the two Anni's.

The Anni on the right laughed.  "That's the least of your problems," she said, and in that moment, everyone except for the other Anni and Hopie was thrown to the floor.

"Anni," Wes croaked from the ground, his breath knocked out of him.

"I'm not your precious Anni," the girl said, scowling at Anni.  "She's a weakling.  I'm not.  I guess," she said finally, "that you can call me Ari."

"Bella," Hopie said.

"Yes?" both girls replied.

Hopie narrowed her eyes at the dark Anni.  "You're not Bella," she said.

"But I am special," the one who called herself Arabella replied.  Hopie said nothing.  Ari was right.  She was special, and pretty soon, it would be night time, and then all of the vampires would know she was special too.

TBC… I meant to put this really sweet Oz/Kate scene in there, but it didn't fit in quite yet, so pretty soon, I promise, and there will eventually be plenty of fluff of all varieties.  Next up, Maddy terrorizing Wolfram and Hart, Ari wreaks havoc, and the Sunnydale and Fang Gangs team up to find a way to save Anni and Maddy before it's too late, plenty more of Kody, Cale and Hopie interaction, and much more…

This chapter is over 4,000 words.  So much for short chapters.  It's seriously long enough to be two, but I won't make you wait to read the second half of it, even though I could probably get away with it if I wanted to.

So all of you review.  Yes, even you, person who reads and never reviews.  Yup, you too.  And you.  ALL of you.  4,000 words, people… the least you can give me in return is a few of yours.  REVIEW!!!                     


	11. Two

DISCLAIMER: I don't own the BtVS and AtS characters.  I do own the others.  For details, read the disclaimers in other chapters.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry this chapter is so long in coming.  This is the third time I've sat down to write this, and I even got as far as a thousand words last time, but it just wasn't right, so here I am scrapping everything and starting from scratch.  Hopefully, I'll end up with something halfway decent this time, and if not, forgive me, because I'm just going to post whatever comes.    For some reason this story has rather left me, and I'm continuing only for all of you who reviewed, so please be kind.

To kitty-kat, most of your questions can't be answered without spoilers, but just know that within four chapters, you'll know it all, so just read on for now.

To Queen Misfit: the order of this series goes Only Hope, Le Bella, A Very Hopie Christmas, Things Unseen, Luck of the Irish, Thine, with Luck and Christmas being fluffy relatively plotless ficlets and the others being full length.

Oh, and if you still haven't read Le Bella, the whole Turot mythos thing is going to get very confusing.  There are some Things references this chapter too.

Thine Own Self: Chapter Eleven

            Maddy looked around the room she had been thrown into, giving the two guards standing at the door a seemingly pleasant smile.  "So," she said.  "This is what it's like to be kidnapped."  The young British girl paused for a moment.  "I don't much care for it myself.  Getting kidnapped seems more of a Dawn thing than a slayer thing to me."

            The two people standing guard said nothing.  Maddy crossed over to them, and hands on her hips, stared up at them.  "What?" she said.  "Just because you're evil you can't tell me what the hell is going on?"  The two guards said nothing, and as the little hairs stood up on the back of her neck, Maddy realized that they weren't entirely human.

            Thoughtfully, Maddy chewed her bottom lip.  "Bitch," she said, looking at them expectantly.  Nothing.  "Damn.  Shit.  Bastard.  Asshole."

            "Nothing?" she asked.  She paused.  They said nothing.

            Maddy frowned.  Somehow, without someone there to despair over her use of language, it just wasn't the same.

            Shrugging, she walked to the other side of the room.

            "What do we do with her until She gets here?" the one with the uneven biceps asked.

            The guard with the one continuous eyebrow shrugged.  "Stand watch," he replied.  "She doesn't want the girl harmed."

            Maddy smiled wickedly.  She didn't really know where she was or who had orchestrated her little kidnapping, but if they couldn't lay a hand on her, she had the distinct feeling that things were about to get very, very interesting.

            Maddy beamed at the guards.  Unibrow averted his gaze.  Bicep boy wrinkled his brow a bit.

            "Boys," Maddy said, making the two huge non-humans shudder, "I think that we're going to have a lot of fun together."

            The two mammoth automatons looked at each other.  They didn't like the sound of that.

            For a moment, there was complete silence.

            Joss broke the deafening quiet with a typically petulant sentence.  "Great," she muttered to Kendall.  "Now there are two of them."

            Kendall, her voice low, turned back to Joss.  "Could be worse," she replied good-naturedly.  "There could be two of you."

            Joss said nothing, and as Ari turned her glare in their direction, Joss shrank back against Kendall a little.  Surprisingly, Kendall struggled to stand in front of the younger Potential.

            Ari shrugged, tossing a bit of hair back over her shoulder, and as she did so, Kendall shrank back down to the ground.

            "Are you okay?" Joss hissed, never taking her eyes off of Ari.

            Kendall narrowed her eyes at the girl who looked exactly like Anni, but wasn't.  "I'm fine," she said, her voice low.  Ari arched an eyebrow.  If she had her way, once the sun set, they wouldn't be fine at all.

            In the sewers under ground, the rumors were flying.  "She's back," a particularly scrawny vampire whispered in awe to a female vamp easily twice his size.

            The female nodded, barely perceptibly, feeling the way the air around her buzzed, calling her, calling all of them, to their queen.  Turot had returned, and with her, the power of the arch slayer. 

            Oz felt Kate tense next to him as Kendall was thrown to the ground, and he took her hand gently in his, squeezing it softly.  

            Kate took a deep breath.  These things weren't supposed to scare her anymore.  She was supposed to be strong.  For Cale.  As his name crossed her mind, Kate jerked her hand out of Oz's, and though she was still held to the ground by whatever magic Ari had managed to work, she crawled, scraping her way along the pavement.  Her knees began to bleed long before she reached her son.

            Cale stood up with ease, and ran toward his mother on chubby baby legs.  When he reached her, he patted her back.  "Mommy okay?" he asked, his sensitive nose smelling the blood in the cuts on her legs.

            "Not hung-y now," he said, mispronouncing the word 'hungry,' though he'd often pronounced it just fine.  "Why Mommy bleed?" 

 Kate, still laying on the ground, reached an arm up to him.  "Shhhhh, baby," she shushed him, pulling him into her arms.  Cale, with all of the energy of a two year old who'd slept the entire car ride to Los Angeles, wriggled out of her arms.  

"Brother," he said, gesturing toward Connor and completely unaware of the danger around him.  "Come see, Mommy."

Hopie turned to Cale.  "That's My Connor," she told him, keeping one eye on Ari all the while.  Cale giggled.

"Hi-Hi!" he said.  For lack of something better to say, he pointed at Kate, who, like the others, was still on the ground.

"Mommy," he said, smiling broadly.  He sniffed the air.  "Mommy bleed," he said, the puzzled tone in his voice expressing clearly how very silly Mommy was to be bleeding at that moment.  A thoughtful look crossed Cale's face, as he gestured to himself.

"No red," he said, concern in his voice as it occurred to him that perhaps Mommy wasn't being silly after all.

"Silence," Ari hissed.  "I have no patience for you, child."

Cale looked at her and took a step towards her.

"Cale…" Kate's voice caught in the back of her throat. 

 "Pretty," the little boy said.  "Purple."  He wrinkled his nose then and sneezed a baby sneeze.

"Purple?" Wes said from the ground, his mind spinning.  He remembered well the significance of that color: the ancient slayer turned vampiress Turot had carried a purple jewel around her neck, and her essence, the essence of the so-called arch slayer, had taken on that color, stored in vampire after vampire as its keepers searched for the one girl who could house such an essence.  A girl destined to be a slayer who was also magically gifted, a girl whose anger and hurt after years of betrayal would fuel Turot's _kcyna_, her essence, turning her into the ultimate evil.

Anni.

Sitting on top of the expensive mahogany desk, Maddy kicked her legs against its edge in a constant steady rhythm.  With each successive thud, the guards at the door winced a bit.  Maddy began exploring the contents of the desk.  She'd already been through the rest of the room.  Finding a permanent pen, she smiled and hopped off of the desk.

As she walked across the room, she hummed under her breath.

"What's she humming?" Unibrow asked.

Lopsided grimaced as the sounds of the song 'I'm too Sexy' floated across the room.  The two watched in horror as Maddy took the cap off the pen and began drawing a rather inappropriate appendage on a ceremonial statue sitting in the corner of the room.

One of the guards stepped forward, but the other held out his hand to stop her.

"We have very specific orders not to harm her," he said.

The other gritted his teeth and watched as Maddy continued on to give the ceremonial statue of the Ventnor, warrior demon, a very petite pair of breasts.

A furious sputter caught in Bicep's throat.  

Maddy looked at him, batting her eyelashes innocently.  "What?" she asked, sticking out her own small chest.  "We can't all be C cups, you know."

Neither of the guards said anything.  Maddy continued singing to herself.  She would crack them, and then she'd know where she was and why.  It was only a matter of time.

Unibrow's eyes dropped to look at the first bit of decoration Maddy had added to the statue.

Maddy looked at him seriously.  "Ancient embodiments of evil can be hermaphrodites too," she said, watching the two henchmen in anticipation.

Neither of them said a word.  Maddy shrugged and looked around to see what else she could find to decorate.

It was only a matter of time.

"Turot," Wes said the name out loud, and Ari turned to look at him.

"I'm not Turot," she said gaily.  "You lot would be so lucky."  Wes kept his expression carefully blank, even as his gut wrenched at how much the girl sounded like Anni, his Anni.  Though she looked like a thirteen year old, he knew that the person standing directly above him was the furthest thing from it.

"Two!" Cale said happily, his voice loud.  "I'm two!"

"Technically," Dawn said, an inappropriately impish grin on her face, "so is Connor."

For the first time, Kate took a look at the man-boy her son was beaming at, and it hit her directly in the gut that this male with the too-long hair and too-thin frame was somehow Angel's son.  He was the one who'd caused Cale to be born the way he was.  Kate had been prepared to forgive a little boy of that, but staring at Connor, her heart still pounding with fear for Cale, she narrowed her eyes slightly.

Had he been breathing, Angel would have let out a deep breath.  He almost did so just for effect, but he remembered at the last second that Cordelia was lying directly beside him.

"Kate," he said instead, no emotion in his voice.

"Angel," Kate said, meeting his eyes with accusations of her own.

"Aunt Anya," Hopie said to fill the silence that followed.

"Sexcapades," Anya said brightly due to lack of impulse control.  "And stock portfolios."

Ari cleared her throat, and all of the adults, still trapped on the ground, looked up at her.  Anni, a new tasting fear gripping her throat, stared as well, standing tall beside her evil other half.

"Excuse me," Ari said, walking carefully through them all.  "I believe you all have more pressing concerns."  She leaned over and pressed a violent kiss to Jordy's lips, and as if under a trance, he kissed back.  Anni never took her eyes off of Ari.

Ari broke away from Jordy, a small smirk settling over her face.  "More pressing problems like me," she said.  Jordy let out his breath, and with it came a small, purple mist that rose like smoke into the air.

"Two!" Cale said again brightly.  Ari beckoned the child forward, and Spike and Angel felt pulls in their stomach to move toward the girl as well, but anchored by their respective women, they stayed put.

Cale shook his head mischievously, and Kate was reminded of all of the times that she had been forced to chase the little boy to put him down for his nap.  

Cale pointed at Connor.  "One," he said.  He pointed to himself.  "Two," he said again, clapping.

Ari concentrated her will on the vamp child, but at that moment, Hopie stepped forward and put her hand on Cale's shoulder.  She looked toward Dakota and Chance.

"One," she said, pointing to Chance, then Dakota.  "Two."

Cale jumped up and down, giggling madly.  Hopie bent down and whispered something in his ears.

Ari narrowed her eyes at the children, genuine worry entering her over confident face for a moment.

"Bonzaiii!" the little boy yelled, his voice loud and high pitched.  Ari arched on eyebrow.

"That all you got?" she asked Hopie.  "Amateur."

"I know you are, but what am I?" Hopie replied tauntingly.

Gunn couldn't help but snort.  Kindergarten had taught Hopie many things, but including what passed for the five year old version of the retort.

Ari looked towards the west, and as she noticed that the sun was no more than an hour away from setting, she laughed, a child's laughter.

            Maddy laughed out loud at the expression on guard number two's face.  After defacing every valuable painting and sacred artifact in the room, she'd moved on to something slightly more near and dear to the guards hearts.  Their faces were now adorned with some of her sketches as well.  These fellows sure took their orders not to hurt her seriously.

            Walking back to the desk, Maddy put the cap on the pen.  "So," she said conversationally.  "Ready to let me leave yet?"

            The guards were ready to kill her, orders or no orders, but they knew that they could not harm her in any way.

            Maddy thought for a moment.  They just needed one last push.  She looked around, and seeing an urn that she'd yet to shatter, she opened it and looked inside curiously.

            "Okay, that's it," Unibrow said.  The other guard stopped him.  

            "We can't hurt her," he reminded his colleague.

            "But those are the ashes of the first of my line," Unibrow replied, "used in many torture spells as befits our murderous breed, and a personal matter of honor to me."

             The wheels in Maddy's head turned at rapid pace.  "You know," she said.  "You guys really shouldn't leave valuable stuff like this lying around.  It can get broken," she pretended to drop the urn, making the guard lurch forward, "or spilled."  She tilted it dangerously to one side.  Finally, Maddy looked up, and the two guards felt a moment of fear.  "Or," Maddy said, her voice the very sound of innocence, "it could get overly dry."  The guards looked at her blankly.

            "This isn't exactly a humidity controlled environment," Maddy said, "and I'm afraid that these ashes have just dried straight out."  Maddy walked over and patted the guard on the shoulder, convinced by the results of her earlier actions that they were under strict orders not to hurt her in the least.  

            "Don't worry," Maddy said, consoling the guard, before walking away from him again, tossing the urn from hand to hand.  "I'll dampen them up a bit for you."

            She turned her back to the guards, and they had no idea what she was planning to do until the heard her unzip the fly of her jeans and position the urn just so.  A few moments later, it was too late.

            "AAAARRRRRRRGGGGG!" the guard yelled.  "I don't care that we're ordered to keep her here until Ms. Morgan can make her offer.  I'm going to kill her!"  He started towards her, and Maddy, realizing that she wasn't near strong enough to fight him off, shrank back.

            "Oh, stop it," a voice came from behind him, and he instantly stopped.  "Die," Lilah said, angry that he'd disobeyed her commands, her fury truly fueled by the fact that these imbeciles had managed to kidnap the wrong girl.  The guard exploded in front of Maddy's eyes, and she looked at Lilah, the question in her eyes.

            Lilah shrugged.  "He's bound to do as I bid him," Lilah said.  "Sorcery, it's a beautiful thing."

            "Lilah," Maddy said, recognizing the woman from the scant hour they had met in England months before.

            "You," Lilah said, not able to place the girl's name.  "You aren't Dakota."

            "Give the lady a cookie," Maddy said, in very good imitation of Dakota.  Despite her bravado, she felt a slight chill run up her back as the woman looked at her.

            "We aren't always dealt the cards we want in life," Lilah said.  "Sometimes you win, and hell, sometimes your unborn child is stolen from your womb by a demon-spawn child with more power than the rest of the world put together."  She chuckled lightly, her eyes dark.  "But you know, what are you going to do?"

            Maddy looked at Lilah, her eyes blazing.  "Don't call Hopie that," she said.  "And you didn't deserve that baby."

            Lilah wrapped her hand around Maddy's neck, and for a second, the young girl couldn't breath.  "Didn't I?" Lilah asked.  After what seemed like eternity, she lightened her grip, and Maddy realized that the older woman didn't mean to kill her.  As soon as she realized it, the wheels in her head started turning.

            "You'll die," Lilah said conversationally.  "You all will, but I'm starting with the hellspawn child who stole my baby, and I think, my dear Potential, that I know just the way to get to her, thanks to you of course."

            Maddy didn't reply.  She set her mind to thinking.  She needed a plan, and no matter the plan, stage one, she knew, was bound to be irritating Lilah.  Maddy didn't know how it would help anything, but irritating Lilah was guaranteed to be fun.

            As these thoughts were running through Maddy's head, her eyes settled on a bluish gray ball sitting on Lilah's desk.

            Finally, after a moment more of silence, Anni found her voice.  "What's going on here?" she asked.

            Ari smiled at her, a slow grin that spread across her face, _Anni's_ face, as the girl took a step forward.  "You know what's going on," Ari purred, inching forward, step by step.  "You've always known."

            "Known what?" Anni asked.

            Wes tried to get to his feet, but as Ari waved her hand, he was thrown again to the ground.

            Willow stood, and Ari failed to throw her to the ground.  She smiled at Willow, sensing the power the woman held, and moreover, sensing the darkness that held tight to such power.

            "Known what? I've always known what?" Anni asked again, her voice tense.

            Ari looked back at her.  "That you were me," she replied.  

Casting a careful eye at Willow, Ari disappeared from where she stood.

            Willow looked at Anni.  "Are you okay?" she asked.

            Anni looked around, avoiding the question.

            Faith got to her feet.  "What the hell just happened here?" she asked.

            Dakota pulled away from Chance's touch as she stood.  "You don't know?" she asked, her voice dripping with lazy sarcasm.  "I'd figure you for being big with the knowing when something freaky-slash-slutty happens."  Kody cast a lazy glance at Anni.  "No offense," she said, realizing that she'd referred to the other Anni as 'freaky-slash-slutty.'  Anni shrugged.

            Gunn stood up.  "Damn powers," he said.  "They can't give a guy a little warning before something like that happens?"

            Buffy, still on the ground in a rather compromising position involving Spike and her own extreme flexibility, cleared her throat.  "That's the question of the moment, isn't it?" she said, her voice a little hoarse.  "Something like _what happens?"_

            Her question hung in the air, unanswered for a moment.

            "I have a different question," a deep British voice said.  "Where is my little sister, who is she kissing, and who in their right mind would want to kidnap her?"

            Dakota looked at the ground, a carefully blank expression settling over her face.

            Faith looked at her.  "Look, Muffin," she said.  "It ain't your fault, kid."

            Clay narrowed his eyes at Dakota.  "I'm not so sure about that," he said.

            Faith shot him a dangerous look.  "Back off, British," she said, a bite in her voice and her hand on her pregnant stomach.

            "There's no sense in bickering," Giles said reasonably.  "We simply need to find out exactly what happened with Anni and this Ari, and how to stop her, discover where Maddy is being held, and disperse field teams to overpower both Wolfram and Hart and the arch slayer I assume that Anni has become."

            Anni waved her hand in front of Giles.  "Still standing here," she said.

            He shrugged.

            Angel looked wryly at Giles.  "When you put it that way," he said sarcastically, "sounds like this should be a piece of cake."

            The others made it to their feet.

            "So where do we start?" Connor asked. 

 Kate stared at him, trying to conceal the animosity she felt toward the one whose very existence had condemned her son.  She felt a hand on her shoulder, and Kate moved her head slightly and found herself looking into Oz's steady eyes.

            "We start," Kate said, her voice low and hoarse, "with my son."

            "Me!" Cale said happily.

            "That's what we came here to do," Kate plowed on, "and that's what we're going to do."

            "The situation has changed," Buffy said, her voice sharpening with dislike for the woman before her.

            Willow chewed on her bottom lip for a moment.  "Kate may have a good idea, Buff," she said.  "Whatever happened to Anni has something to do with Cale, Connor, Chance, and Muffin…" Willow shot Dakota an apologetic look.  "Sorry," she said, hoping the mini-Faith realized that she was pregnant and therefore not to be scorned, "I don't know your real name."

            "Anyway," Willow continued, "if it involves Cale and Connor, maybe it has something to do with the balance thingie."

            Kate arched one eyebrow at the word 'thingie.'

            "What about Maddy?" Nicolaa asked.

            "Yeah," Kendall said, throwing her support toward the girl she had trained with and been friends with for years.

            Lindsey stepped up.  "I know Wolfram and Hart," he said.  "And I know Lilah."  He inclined his head toward Nic and Clay.  "You two come with me," he said.  "We'll see about Maddy."

            Gunn stepped forward.  "You guys are going to need some muscle," he said.

            Dakota looked up.  "I'm going too," she said, her voice casual.  Faith saw right through the exterior.

            "Sorry, um, Little Faith," Willow said, "but you're part of the balance thing, and we might need you here if we want to undo it, assuming it can be undone."

            Faith saw the refusal on Kody's lips.

            "I'll go," she said.  Dakota said nothing, and Faith took her silence as some sort of acceptance.

            Hopie wrinkled her nose a bit, and the others looked at her expectantly.

            "How long until sunset," the youngest in the circle of vampires asked.

            The oldest looked at him, feeling disgust for a vampire so young that he could not taste the sunset in the air and approximate its arrival time. 

 "A little over two hours," the oldest vamps mate replied, saving him the trouble of replying.

From places hidden from the sun, all of the city and all of the world, vampires felt the pull toward their queen as she beckoned them.

On the surface, Ari smiled.  She would have her army soon, and then, there'd be no need for them to hide from sunlight.  It was only a matter of time.

Maddy picked up what appeared to be the little glass ball.

"Put it down," Lilah said, mild annoyance entering her voice.

"What is it?" Maddy asked.

"Put it down," Lilah replied, reigning in her temper.

"Tell me what it is and I will," Maddy replied.

"Put it down or I'll have your hands chopped off," Lilah said simply.

Maddy just stared at her, expectantly.

"Fine," Lilah said, thinking that the sooner she got her plan in motion, the sooner she would be able to see those who'd robbed her of what was hers die slow and painful deaths.  "It's an Orb of Lagassis.  There used to be three in the world.  Now there are only two."  Lilah thought unwittingly of the way that the last orb had met its demise.

Maddy threw it against the wall, and it shattered.  "Now there's only one," she said.

For no reason, Maddy felt compelled at that moment to try one last thing.

_Hopie, she thought.  _Can you hear me?__

"Hopie, baby, what's wrong?" Cordy asked, approaching her daughter as the little girl cocked her head to one side.

Hopie turned to Colette, who was standing behind Nic and Clay, as if the near-invisible Potential had said something.

As usual, Colette said nothing.

_I can hear you_, Hopie thought back.  _But just barely.___

_Whatever you do, don't come_, Maddy thought briefly.  _Lilah's_ going to kill you.  All of you.__

And then, Maddy felt the connection with Hopie slip, and she crossed her hands over her waist, looking directly at Lilah and wondering what else she could do to stop the woman from killing her friends.

Colette shifted slightly under Hopie's intense gaze.  Finally, the little girl spoke up.  "Maddy said that Lilaaaaah wants to kill us.  She's in a mean building."

With that piece of information, Lindsey set off, Nic, Clay, Gunn, and Faith in tow, to find Maddy.

"Don't worry," Faith told Hopie, "we won't die."

"I know," Hopie said.  "You're pregnant."

Faith looked down.  Was it her, or was she more pregnant than she had been five minutes ago?

"And I'll get all research-y," Willow said, taking a step toward the hotel lobby.  The remaining people followed.

They had just under two hours until sunset.   

In Lilah's office, the second to last Orb of Lagassis sat in shards on the floor.

TBC… the battle(s) approach, a Dakota/Connor confrontation, Kate moves closer to the edge, a Kate/Oz moment, fluffiness of all kinds, more Maddy hi-jinks, Hopie and Cale play time, and things get a little less cryptic…

REVIEW (4300 words… that ain't bad.  Give me ten or so of yours.)

I have finals and move out this week, but I may be able to manage one more chapter.


	12. Ants Reprise

DISCLAIMER: I own Anni, Ari, Hopie, Cale, Maddy, Chance, Joss, Kendall, Colette, Nic, Clay, and Dakota.  All other characters are the property of Joss Whedon et al.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Finals are over, I'm finally moved home (though I've yet to unpack), and I *almost* have time to write this chapter.

Oh, and a fair warning, there's some Oz/Kate in this chapter, and there's prob going to be even more in the next few.  The way I see it, Oz is a year older than Cordy and Faith, and Lindsey, Angel, and Kate are of fairly analogous ages (if you took Angel's human age), so if Lindsey and Faith can be together, and Cordy and Angel can be together, then Kate isn't too old for Oz.

Anyway, the real reason you guys are getting this chapter now is that today is May 17.  Is it sick if I know that May 17th is Hopie's birthday?  Anyway, that's what she told Buffy her birthday was way back in Only Hope, so here you guys go.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HOPIE! (who, *yes* I realize is not a real person)

Thine Own Self: Chapter Twelve

            Kate crossed her arms over her chest as she listened to the momentary silence in the room.  

            Finally, Willow took a deep breath.  Kate looked toward her, her chest tightening with anxiety.  This was the last chance for Cale to have a normal life.  In a lot of ways, Kate felt like this was her last chance too.  She'd spent so many years hating vampires and other demons, that the stress of finding out her little boy was cursed to spend his life as a hybrid was nearly killing her.  Deep down, Kate had always figured that it was her just reward for the way she'd treated Angel that her only son be afflicted.

            Kate shook her head almost imperceptibly, pushing the thoughts out of her mind.  She told herself for maybe the thousandth time that Cale was going to get better.  That was all that mattered.

            "See," Willow was saying, "the deal with these balance prophesies is that they're never located in just one place.  The text cannot be translated without having both halves.  I guess they felt all ironic-y the day they were writing these prophesies."  Seeing the tense look on Kate's face, Willow got straight to the point.

            "According to the balance tradition," she continued, "the laws which govern our physical world also govern the universe on a mystical level."  Willow received several blank stares.

            "Physics," Fred supplied cheerfully.  "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, hence the whole 'balance' thing."

            Kate nodded.  Willow had told her this before.

            "Hence, human baby born to vampire parents yields vampire baby born to human parents," Wes said smoothly.

            "Connor and Cale balance each other," Willow continued.  "What I didn't realize before is that this balance isn't like putting two things that weight the same amount on opposite ends of a seesaw."

            At the word seesaw, the formerly quiet room came to life.  Hopie turned to Cale, excited to have someone near her own age in the room.  "I have a seesaw," she announced proudly.  "We can play on it, you and me, okay Cale?"

            "Yup yup," Cale replied happily.  "Seeeeee-saaaaaaw."  The little boy tilted his head toward Connor, who was sitting quietly to the side, whispering softly to Dawn.  He looked back at Hopie quizzically.  The little girl sighed a very adult sigh.

            "Connor won't play right now," she said.  "He's Dawn-ing."

            Cale nodded, and his hands had the sudden urge to play with Dawn's long hair.  It looked like fun.

            "Come on," Hopie said, pulling Cale's hand.  "Let's go play seesaw in the basement."

            "'Kay," Cale said happily.  "Bye bye, Mommy!"

            Kate, still not very sure who exactly Hopie was, would have stopped him from going, but she felt a hand on her shoulder.  She turned to look at Oz, and for a moment, she would have sworn that he smiled.  Blinking once, she looked at him again, only to discover that his facial expression hadn't changed at all, and she wondered if she'd imagined the smile.

            Hopie happily skipped off, Cale running behind her on sturdy toddler legs.

            Unwittingly, Willow's hand had gone to her stomach, and she wondered if the little boy she carried inside of her would be as friendly and unabashed as Kate's son.

            Thinking of Cale, Willow continued.  "It's not like a seesaw," she said.  "It's more like…" the wicca paused, trying to come up with an adequate metaphor.  "It's like the two poles of a magnet.  You can't just have a north pole.  A south pole will always be created too."

            "And the poles are always connected," Anni said softly.  The others looked at her, and Anni gestured a bit listlessly toward the two texts she had been working with.  "That's what we didn't understand about the Balance philosophies and prophesies," the girl continued, her voice still soft.  "It's not just that Connor's birth created Cale's condition.  The two of them are connected, opposite ends of a pole."

            Willow nodded.  "Same for Chance and Little Faith," she supplemented.

            Dakota practically growled.  "Don't call me Little Faith," she said.  "My name is Dakota or Kody.  Nothing else, and I'm not a part of anything.  I'm not at either end of some metaphysical pole.  I'm me.  I'm not Faith.  I'm not half of Chance.  I'm Dakota.  That's it, end of story, and no offense, lady," she said to Kate, "but if I were you, I'd worry about your little boy being half of some freak complex with Shaggy over there."  Kody jerked a finger toward Connor.

            Completely oblivious, Connor continued whispering with Dawn.

            "Gag me," Dakota muttered.

            Connor looked up.  "That can be arranged," he said simply.

            Kate thought on Dakota's words.  The solution seemed pretty simple in her mind.  Cale was the way he was because of Connor.  To make Cale better, she just had to get rid of the other pole of that magnet.  

            Dakota glared at Connor.  Something about that kid just rubbed her the wrong way, and while she was at it, she thought that Dawn was very irritating too.

            Lilah gritted her teeth, as Maddy fingered the permanent marker she'd somehow gotten a hold of again, a wicked gleam in her eye.

            "Give it to me," Lilah said, her voice pleasantly dangerous.

            Maddy batted her eyelashes, Hopie style, at the older woman.  "I just need something to hold in my hands," she said.  "Being kidnapped makes me a little nervous, that's all."

            Lilah snorted.  The girl in her office was a first class terror, and she didn't believe a word the kid was saying.

            "You know," Lilah said conversationally, "you'll work just as well as bait if you're injured.  In fact, as long as they don't know you're dead, you'd work just as well without a breath left in your little oversexed lungs."

            Maddy grinned at the word 'oversexed.'  No one had ever called her oversexed before.

            "That wasn't a compliment," Lilah commented.

            "Neither was me telling you that your breasts were lopsided," Maddy replied instantly.

            Lilah narrowed her eyes at the girl.  "You never said that," she said.

            Maddy shrugged elegantly.  "I did just now," she replied.

            Lilah resisted the urge to look down at her chest.  Instead, she leaned over and pressed the intercom button.  "Delia," she said to her secretary, "please bring me a knife."

            Maddy's eyes opened more widely.  

            "We're going to play hard ball now," Lilah said in a sing song voice.  She swung around in her swivel chair to look out the window.  She smiled in the sunlight.  It felt good to be the boss.

            "I didn't know you knew how to play any other way," a smooth, low voice said from behind her.

            "Right on time, Lindsey," Lilah commented, swinging back around.  "I knew you'd come in full force."

            The smug smile faded off of Lilah's face as she saw the small group Lindsey had brought with him.  Angel wasn't there, and neither was Cordelia, Wesley, or that wretched child who had stolen her son.

            Lilah looked the group over derisively.  Lindsey had come to battle Wolfram and Hart with nothing more than three Potential slayers, a street hood, and a very pregnant slayer?  

            As her thoughts fully registered, Lilah stared at Faith.  The slayer looked at least seven months pregnant.

            "You have got to be kidding me," Lilah muttered.  "Now she's pregnant too?"

            Maddy grinned.  "Maybe you're not having sex in enough varied manners," she said smoothly.  "I've heard that variation is key in pregnancy, so maybe if you…"

            "Madeline!" Clay said.  Maddy stifled a grin.  She'd known all along that her brother would come, and she'd known the instant she'd begun talking that he'd yell her full name in horror trying to get her to stop.

            What she didn't know was how in the world they were all going to get out of the mess they were in.  Even as Lilah and Lindsey continued to banter, demons of all varieties were filling the room.

            Lilah smiled smugly.  "Lindsey, you of all people should know that here at Wolfram and Hart, we take security very, very seriously.  I'd hoped to kill Hopie first, but I'm flexible."  She looked at the demon security guards.  "Kill them all," she said, her voice still pleasant.  "Start with the pregnant bitch."

            Maddy's eyes flashed.  "Lady," she said hotly.  "You haven't seen bitch yet."

            Ari closed her eyes for a moment.  It wouldn't be long now.  She could feel the vampires, feel the way that they felt her presence in this world.  A smile spread slowly across her face.

            She'd been quite right to tell Wesley and company that she wasn't Turot.  She had Turot's essence, her power, true enough, but beyond the power of the arch slayer, there were several differences.

            She sat down on the ground, her legs crossed, looking for all the world like the twelve year old girl whose body she wore.  In her mind, she called out to the vampires.  _I'm back, pets.  She told them mentally.  __Come to me.  At sunset, come to me, and by tomorrow, you need never fear the sunrise again._

She felt their responses, each and every one of them.  There were those who were resistant to her pull, the independent vampires who told her mentally that they served no master.

            Ari had one word for these vampires.  _Die_, she told them.  She smiled as she felt them explode into dust.

            That was the true difference between her and the arch slayer who had first carried the essence.  Turot had, in many ways, been a vampire princess, but she'd also been tied to them, made to serve the others.

            Ari smiled and lay down on the grass, listening to the sounds of the little children laughing around her as they ran through the park.

            The children wouldn't be laughing for very long now.

            Ari didn't serve the vampires.  The vampires served her.

            There was less than two hours until sunset.

            "When Cale and Connor met," Willow continued, "it was like two opposite ends of a magnet meeting.  First, they were attracted to each other."  Kate pictured the way that Cale had run up to Connor, gleefully counting to two.

            "The force that drew them together, the energy between them, had its own balance," Fred said, thinking out loud and biting her bottom lip in concentration.  

            "The little laser beam thingy," Dawn guessed, her hand entwined through Connor's.

            "And the same thing must have happened for me and Dakota," Chance said, looking at the other demi warily.  She got a puzzled expression on her face after a moment.  "But I'm not Dakota's other half, not really I don't think.  I mean, Dakota and I were just used to balance out Dawn, weren't we?"

            Dawn, of course, thought that this was a very valid point.

            Giles took his glasses off and cleaned them on his shirt.

            "Dawn was made from Buffy and Faith, two slayers existing simultaneously in our world, despite the odds against it.  Dakota and Chance were used to balance out Dawn's creation.  I suppose you could say Dawn is a balance in and of herself, part Buffy and part Faith."

            "Oh goody," Dawn whispered to Connor.  "I'm a balance in and of myself."

            Connor nuzzled her.  

            "Damn," Dakota said.  "Get a room."

            "That's it," Wes said.

            Anni raised an eyebrow at him.  "Connor and Dawn should get a room?" she asked.

            "They sure as hell better not," Spike said, coming into the room with Buffy. 

            "No," Wes said, rolling his eyes at his younger sister.  "A balance within a single person," Wes said.

            Willow understood what he was saying.  "The balance within Anni," she said.  "She got caught in between the energies released by Chance and Little…er Dakota, and Connor and Cale, and somehow, it split the poles."

            Anni looked down.  "I know," she said.  "She said she wasn't Turot, and I knew she was telling the truth."  The others looked at Anni.  "I knew that she was me, what I almost was.  The rest of you never knew how close I came to letting myself become the arch slayer.  I wanted it, the power, and I was so angry and hurt, and I could see Turot, standing in front of me, hurting the same way, and I remember thinking, in that instant, that she was a weakling.  She let the vampires use her, control her, and I remember thinking that I wasn't going to, that it was going to be different for me.  I was going to control them, and I was going to control the world.  And then I looked at Wes, and he was frozen to his spot, like the rest of you, and just as the vampire carrying the essence was about to bite me, I changed my mind."

            The others stared at Anni.  "I meant to accept the power, the darkness, but at the last second, I pushed the part of myself that wanted to do that down, and I chose not to."  Anni lowered her face.  "But even when I chose not to become that, I wasn't sure.  Part of me wanted to, and I've spent all this time pretending like that part wasn't there, because I didn't want that to be part of who I was."

            "We all have that kind of darkness inside of us," Willow said softly, reaching over to take Anni's hand.

            "Not like I do," Anni said, her voice catching in her throat.

            Willow squeezed her hand.  "Yes," she said, thinking of her own days of dark magic, "like you do."

            Anni got a flash then and saw things through Ari's eyes.  She was lying on the grass, looking up at the slowly darkening sky.  "_Come to me.  At sunset, come to me, and by tomorrow, you need never fear the sunriset again._" Anni spoke Ari's words, and the others stared at her.

            "Anni?" Wes said uncertainly.

            "_Die," Anni said softly, still caught up in the flash.  Tears filled her eyes, but they did not fall, as she broke out of the flash.  "She's gathering the vampires to her," she said softly.  "At sunset, she'll have an army.  If we can't stop her before then…"_

            Anni trailed off.

            "We'll figure out how to stop her," Buffy said, pulling Spike closer to her.  "Can't we use some sort of this balance mojo against her?" 

            Kate's eyes were still locked on Connor.  Her fingers felt lightly the gun she still carried in the inside of her jacket.  She knew that she could bring the gun out and shoot him before anyone could stop her.  

            When did I become a killer? She wondered.  She knew the answer right away.  She'd always had the killer instinct, and she'd become a killer in the same moment that she'd become a mother.  

            "Perhaps," Wes said thoughtfully, "if we can manage to reverse the process, separate the poles, with Anni and Ari in the middle, we could recombine the two."

            "You want to put her back inside of me?" Anni said.  In the exact same motion his cousin had used earlier with Kate, Jordy put a comforting hand on Anni's shoulder.

            "I can't think of anything else that would work," Wes said.

            Kate's fingers tightened a bit around the gun.

            "I don't even know if that's possible, Wes," Willow said.  "The alignment would have to be perfect, and Balance Magic is almost impossible to manipulate."

            Fred bit her bottom lip as she did some quick mental calculations.  "The chances of getting everything right: the timing, the angles, the force vector sums."  She trailed off.  "The chances aren't good," she finished.

            "We need a back up plan," Buffy said.  "I'm a big fan of the back up plan."

            "I know how to kill Ari," Anni said softly.  The others looked at her.  Kate listened with half of an ear as she prepared to bring the gun out of her shirt.

            It was for Cale, she told herself.  She'd do anything for her son.

            "To kill Ari," Anni said calmly, "all you have to do is kill me."

            Kate paused a moment in the horrified silence that followed.  

            "No," Wesley said, his voice rough and angry.  "It's out of the question."

            "There is no question," Anni said.  "Follow the logic.  Ari and I are connected.  If you eliminate one pole of a magnet, there's resistance to depolarization, but if you manage it…" Anni took a deep breath.  "Well, you can't have one pole without the other," she said slowly.  "If you kill me, you kill Ari."

            Kate's hand slipped off the gun.  _Oh God, she thought.  _That means that if I'd shot Connor, I would have killed Cale.  I almost killed a human being, and because of that, I almost killed my own son. _ Kate felt the nausea rising in the back of her throat.  She bolted from the room.  Oz slipped out silently after her._

              "That is not an option," Wes said, his voice booming.

            Anni stared back at him.  "If we can't figure out how to work Balance Magic in the next seventy-five minutes," she said, "it's the only option."

            A pained look came across Buffy's face.  This wasn't the type of back up plan she'd hoped for.

            "I won't let them kill you," Jordy said, his voice for once full of expression.

            Anni stared blankly ahead, as if she'd gone numb.  "If Willow's spell doesn't work," she said, "I'll kill myself."

            "You can't do that," Buffy said.

            Anni stared at her.  "You know better than anyone," Anni said.  "I have to."

            Kendall and Joss stared at all of the demons in the room.  Kendall could hear Joss's audible gulp.

            Surprising herself, Kendall reached over and squeezed Joss's hand.  "It'll be okay," she said.

            _"It'll be okay, Joscelyn," the older girl promised, kneeling down to talk to Potential who was really just a little girl.  "You'll see.  Other girls will come, and Mr. Travers will take good care of you until then."  Little Joss could tell that even the girl speaking didn't believe her words.  Joss knew the truth.  It was never going to be okay again._

"It'll be okay," Kendall said again, vehemently.  

            "You don't believe that," Joss whispered back.

            "Okay," Kendall said.  "It probably won't be okay, but if I die here, I'm going to die kicking some demon ass, and that brunette lady next to Maddy is going down."

            Joss smiled a little.  "If anyone ever deserved to be flounced," she said, her voice quivering a little, "it's her."

            "Your little 'army' doesn't stand a chance, Lindsey," Lilah said.  "Those little girls couldn't slay a newborn vamp," she said speaking of Nic, Joss, and Kendall.  "The boy looks like he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth."  Clay gritted his teeth, his eyes still on his little sister.  Lilah dismissed Gunn without saying a single word.  "And," the woman said finally, "looks like wife-y dear is a bit knocked up at the moment.  Her stomach's so big I doubt she could get near enough to a vamp to slay it."

            Faith looked down at her stomach.  She blinked once.  In a matter of days, she'd nearly come to term.  Were all slayer pregnancies like this one?

            "Honestly, Lindsey," Lilah continued, "I doubt the baby's even yours.  With a slut like her, it could be anybody's.  The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, you know, and your dear wife is nothing but a nameless, nothing bastard, whose father couldn't be bothered to stay around.  He had better things to do, other daughters to have."

            "What are you talking about?" Faith asked.

            Lilah smiled.  "Oops," she said, "now I've said too much."  She paused a moment and then spoke again.  "Kill them," she said again.

            The demons moved menacingly toward Faith, and the slayer stood in a rather awkward pregnant fighting stance.

            Lindsey held up a hand toward the demons.  "If you'd give me a moment alone with my wife," he said smoothly, "I'd like to say goodbye."  His voice was so polite and compelling, and he was so good looking, that even the demons couldn't resist his request.  They stood still for a moment, as Lindsey leaned into Faith.

            "What are you doing?" she asked him softly.  "I'm not ready to throw in the towel yet, and you can't be either."

            "Of course not," Lindsey replied.  "But you looked so darned kissable."  His lips fell softly onto hers in a short, soft kiss.

            "Darned?" Faith asked, her face still touching his.

            Lindsey put his hand out, and reverently touched her stomach.  "The baby's listening," he explained.

            Faith grinned.  "Didn't you hear Hopie?" she asked.  "She said 'babies.'"  

            Lindsey, after one last small caress of Faith's stomach, moved his hands to her back.  "God, I love you, woman," he said, dipping her back and catching her up in a passionate kiss that reminded her just how she'd come to become pregnant so quickly into their marriage.

            After a long moment, he lifted his lips off of hers.  "I love you too," she said.  "And now, I'm quite ready to kick some ass, thank you."

            Lindsey gestured to her stomach, and Faith couldn't help but smile.  "Fine," she said, humoring him.  "I'm quite ready to kick some bottom."  

            "Hear that, babies?" Lindsey asked Faith's stomach.  "Mommy's going to make all of these demons wish that they'd never set foot in this office, because that's what being a slayer is all about.  Then Daddy is going to explain some things to Lilah, and then we'll all go home, okay?"

            Lilah looked at the demons, still standing around.  "What are you waiting for?!" she screeched.  "Kill them.  Kill.  Them.  Now."

            One of the demons sniffed a bit, wiping away a tear.  "It's so romantic," the demon said.  Lilah gritted her teeth.  True evil was so hard to find these days.

            The other demons were looking around uneasily.  None of them had ever come up against a slayer before.   Then again, the slayer was incredibly pregnant, so perhaps they stood a chance after all.

            "Okay, babies," Lindsey said, "buckle your seat belts.  Something tells me this is going to be a wild ride."

            Faith met his eyes, and neither of them had to say a word in that instant before the fight began.  They'd said all they needed to say.

            Again and again, Kate gagged, clutching the sides of the toilet as she did so.  She heard the door to the bathroom open softly as if from very far away.  Silently, Oz knelt down beside her, gently gathering her blonde hair with his hands and sweeping it away from her face.  He said nothing, he just sat there beside her, holding her hair out of her face and rubbing her back with calm, soothing motions.

            She sat up after a moment, her eyes blood shot, but dry.  She was determined not to cry.  She'd spent so long holding the tears back in public, putting on a good face, that she wasn't about to allow herself to cry in front of a man who'd just held her hair while she threw up.

            Oz stood slowly, and without a word, dampened a wash cloth with cold water.  He knelt back down beside her, stroking her face softly with the cool wash cloth.

            "Better?" he asked.

            She looked down.  "It will never be better," she said.  "It can't be better."  Oz said nothing, sensing that Kate needed to talk.  "It's because of me, you know," she said.  "The person I am, the person I've always been.  I always make the wrong choices.  Cale is the only good thing that's ever happened to me, and he hurts, he's different, because of me." 

            Oz shook his head slowly.  Kate nodded, a lone tear streaming down her cheek.  "He is," she insisted.  "We were in there talking about balance," she said.  "How's this for balance?  I hurt Angel more times than I can count.  There were times when I would have gladly killed him, when I almost did, just because of what he was.  There's some justice in the fact that his son is human and mine isn't, don't you see?  The way Cale is, it's my fault.  It always has been.  My husband knew it.  He left us because of it, because I'd contaminated his son.  Cale's first word was Daddy.  Did you know that?"

            "No," Oz answered simply.  "I didn't."

            "His father was already gone, but his first word was Daddy.  I almost died when that bastard left us, but I knew that it was my fault, and I swore that I'd make it up to Cale.  I did everything I could to find a way to make it right for him.  I brought him to Willow and then to L.A., even though this was a place I'd spent three years running from."  Kate's voice caught a little as the tears began streaming down her cheeks faster and faster.  Why was she saying all of this?  And to a complete stranger at that?

            Oz said nothing.  He just listened.

            Kate continued.  "I did everything I knew how to do.  I guess I always thought that if I changed, if I was just good enough, that Cale would get better, but I just realized.  I haven't changed at all.  I'm still the same cold and calculating shell of a person I always have been."

            "No you're not," Oz said softly.

            Kate looked at him, her face hard despite the tears that just kept coming.  "I almost killed Connor," she said simply.  "I had made my mind up to kill him.  I thought it would help Cale, and it didn't matter to me at all that it would have meant taking another human life.  I almost killed Connor, and I almost killed Cale."

            "I know," Oz said.  Even in human form, being a werewolf kept his senses sharpened.  He'd felt her move toward the gun, heard her hand close around it, and smelled the scent of flesh on metal.

            Kate looked at him, thrown off her guard.  "You know?" she asked.  He nodded.

            "Let's just say that I'm special, kind of like the way Cale is special," Oz said, expecting Kate to recoil from him.  She didn't.

            "Were you going to stop me?" Kate asked, sounding like a little girl and not the hardened cop she'd defined herself as for so long.

            "I knew I wouldn't have to," Oz replied.

            Kate looked back at him.  "How?" she croaked, her voice almost gone.

            "I heard you take all of the bullets out of the gun last night," he replied.

            Kate's heart stopped beating for a moment, and she realized that he was right.  The gun hadn't even been loaded.  She'd made sure of that last night, not wanting to do something stupid.

            Somehow, that pushed her even closer to the edge, and seeing Oz staring at her, that blank expression on his face that seemed somehow tender, she lost it.

            She broke down and cried, sobbing into his chest.  Wordlessly, as he watched her tough exterior crumble, Oz put his arm around Kate, and the two of them sat there on the bathroom floor in silence, listening to each other's hearts beat as her tears dampened his shirt.

"I won't let you," Wes said firmly, completely in older brother mode.  "You're not going to scamper around throughout your teenage years barely clothed, you're not going to stay out past curfew, and you're simply not going to kill yourself to destroy Ari.  Case closed."

Anni looked back at him.  "I've been inside of her," she said.  "She's been inside of me.  If we can't kill her before the sun sets… you have no idea what she's capable of.  We'll all die.  All of us, and all the world.  I know her, Wes.  I am her, and…"

"You are not her," Willow replied, her voice low and angry.

"For all intensive purposes," Anni said, sounding like the over-educated British Miss she had been when she'd arrived, "I most certainly am.  We only have an hour and ten minutes now until sunset.  Don't ask me how I know that.  I just do."

"What do we do?" Chance asked out loud.

"We prepare to fight," Buffy said.  "And they research."

"And," Spike said, "Poof Junior gets his hands away from Dawn before I have them chopped off and Lil' Faith over there loses her lunch."

Dakota gritted her teeth, but she said nothing.  She'd deal with the 'Little Faith' issue if and when they'd averted this apocalypse.

Angel came in and immediately noticed the somber faces.  "I take it things are not going well," he said.

"We have a plan," Anni said softly.  

Angel nodded.  Cordy came in behind him, her face flushed a bit.  She smiled brightly, trying not to look at Angel and wondering if anyone could tell by the looks on their faces that while everyone else had been discussing, the two of them had been caught up in a bit of impromptu grown-up time.

"Where's Hopie?" Cordy asked.

 "She and Cale went down to play with the seesaw in the basement," Willow said absentmindedly.

Cordy tilted her head.  "We don't have a seesaw in the basement," she said, puzzled.  

After a split second, Connor, Angel, and Cordelia ran out of the room, past Lorne, Xander, and Anya, who were caught up in some kind of heated discussion on the merits and atrocious downfalls of Britney Spears.

"I don't like her," Anya was saying.  "She has some of the best paid breasts in the music industry, and they aren't even real."

Lorne, seeing Angel and company rush by, gave up the conversation and followed them.  Anya and Xander, shrugging, did the same.

Cordy threw open the basement door, and rushed in to see Cale and Hopie sitting on what appeared to be a seesaw fashioned from a training dummy, several oversized swords, and a great deal of electrical tape.

"Hope Chase Angel!" Cordy, Connor, and Angel yelled at once.

Hopie, sitting on the handles of several of the broad swords, grinned sweetly up to them.  "Don't worry," she said.  "The pointy parts are in the middle, and the tape will come off."

Cordy took in a deep breath, looking at the precarious looking contraption, and she barked out, "Off of it, both of you, right now."

Both children complied, and Hopie sighed.  No one else ever understood that weapons had many, many uses.

"Momma," Hopie said in her best little girl voice, "would you make us some peanut butter sandwiches?"

Cordelia sighed.  Cale reached up and tugged on Hopie's shirt.  The little girl leaned over and listened as he whispered something in her ear.

"Peanut butter and raisin sandwiches," she corrected herself.  "With juice boxes and blood to drink."

"Hope," Angel said seriously.  "We don't play with weapons, remember?"

Hopie wrinkled her nose.  "Unless we're playing slay time or battle or training," Hopie recited.  "And there has to be an adult there."  She looked down, a sad look on her face.

"And you have to be careful around little ones," Cordy said, gesturing toward Cale.

Hopie nodded seriously.  "We have to take care of babies," Hopie said.

"That's right," Cordy said, thinking about the day when Hopie might have a little brother or sister of her own.

"I'm not a baby," Cale said.  "I'm a monster duck.  Quack grrrrrrr quack!"

Hopie giggled and looked up at her parents.  "And sometimes," she said softly, "babies take care of us."

Angel walked over to the seesaw-ish configuration.  It seemed surprising sturdy considering it was held together only by a great deal of electrical tape.  "Where did you get the tape?" he asked curiously.

Hopie grinned.  "In Kendall's bag," Hopie said.  "She left it here when she went with Uncle Lindsey."

Connor said out loud what the rest of them were thinking, "What would Kendall need that much electrical tape for?"

Ari rolled over and looked at the children.  "Laugh while you still can," she told them.  "The darkness is coming, and then I'll be the only one laughing."

Fred began diagramming the positions each of the children would need to take for the spell to work, down to the tenth of a degree.  Willow made a list of ingredients she would need to increase her strength.  

"_Laugh while you still can," Anni said out loud, echoing Ari's words.  The others stared at her.  Only this time, Anni wasn't just repeating Ari's words.  She was saying them back to her other self.  Deep down, Anni knew that before sunset, neither she nor Ari would be laughing.  They would both be dead._

Willow continued making her list, and at the bottom, she listed the most important 'ingredient' she could think of.  

Hopie.  

Hopie was the only one of them that had magic older and more powerful than the balance magic they were trying to tap into.  Willow knew that she would need the little girl for the spell.

Hopie hopped up the stairs, careful not to look at Connor, because he was still glaring at her.  She sang softly under her breath.

"The ants go marching two by two

Hurrah.  Hurrah

The ants go marching two by two

Hurrah.  Hurrah

The ants go marching two by two

The little one stopped to tie his shoe

And they all go marching down, down

To get under the ground, to get out of the rain."

Lorne raised his eyebrows.  "People," he said.  "There's something I should probably tell you."

TBC… The fight at Wolfram and Hart, Lilah tells Faith about her real relationship with Dakota, and the battle with Ari, where Anni may have to make the ultimate sacrifice… coming up next chapter.

After that, two more chapters: one where the babies are born, and then one for the A/C wedding I promised.

Okay, people, 5700 words, by far the longest chapter yet.  That's twelve single spaced pages, and a whole, whole lot of my time.  REVIEW.

Plus, it's Hopie's birthday, so REVIEW as a present.  It could be a while in between reviews now that I'm home, but I'll try.


	13. This Ain't for Kids

DISCLAIMER: You all know who I own, and it's definitely not the BtVS  and AtS characters, who are the property of Joss Whedon et al.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:  It's come down to sacrificing sleep again, but it was either that or food, so I think I'm making the right choice here… anyway, I didn't feel like I could keep you waiting any longer. Sorry for the Gidget reference, but I had to give a nod to my roots, and I started writing fanfic for the sole purpose of convincing people that Dawn's first name was really Gidget (long story, and hence my author's name).

In response to reviews:

Thank you to everyone who wished Hopie a happy birthday.  What a lovely fictional world we live in, huh?  And to my momma (note the Southern spelling, 'yomama@yomama.com'), thank you so much for feeling compelled to wish Hopie a happy birthday 97 times.  

A Friend: heheehehehehe… you are indeed right, and I am dumb, but then, I never claimed to be over-educated… plus you're talking to the person who thought for YEARS that the Alanis song with the lyrics "the cross I bear that you gave to me" was about a cross-eyed bear.  Way to keep your eyes peeled.

To everyone who requested that Anni live, read on, my friends.  Read on.

Oh, and Imzadi, I have a special surprise for you in the last chapter… because you asked so many times who Cale's father was.  I know, I'm evil to make you wait two more chapters…

Oh, and before I forget, all of you should go read These Hallowed Walls by Pyro Bear and Silent Reverie by Firefly, both of which I'm Beta-ing and consulting on plot-wise… they can both be found on my favorites list.

THINE OWN SELF: Chapter Thirteen

            Cordy looked at Lorne, raising one eyebrow in her patented don't-tell-me-something-else-is-going-to-go-wrong look.  

            "Don't shoot, Princess Lolly," Lorne said, holding his hands up in front of his body.  "I'm just the messenger."

            Angel crossed his hands over his chest.  "Something tells me this isn't a message I'm going to want to hear," he said.

            Lorne shrugged and offered the room a half-hearted smile.  "It's not the worst news we've ever had," he said.

            "What's not the worst news?" Hopie asked curiously, looking back over her shoulders mournfully as Connor approached her seesaw to dismantle it.

            "Not worst news?" Cale said, mimicking Hopie's inflection exactly.

            Cordy looked down at the children.  "Come on," she said, swooping Hopie into her arms and holding a hand out for Cale.  "Let's get you guys those peanut butter sandwiches while Daddy talks to Uncle Lorne."

            Cale looked at Hopie, his blue eyes round.  Hopie nodded and kissed Cordelia soundly on the cheek with a sloppy, little kid smack.

            "Don't forget the raisins, Momma," she said gravely.

            Cordelia shuddered at the thought of a peanut butter and raisin sandwich, but she simply smiled at the children and took them off to fix their snack, wondering what mojo mambo of Hopie's had Lorne with his panties in a twist.

            Angel turned back to Lorne as soon as the children were out of earshot.  "How bad is it?" he asked.

            "Hopie's magic won't work against Ari," Lorne said.  "It's older than balance magic, older than the great balance thingamajig itself.  She's just sort of out of the balance loop, which means that whatever goes down tonight, Hopie can't help us."

            "That's not too bad," Angel said, relieved.  In the next moment, he thought briefly about the fact that they'd all come to rely on Hopie's magic to get them out of the toughest situations.  It wasn't the worst news ever, but if Hopie's ancient magical power couldn't be used against Ari, Willow's options were going to be severely limited.

            Angel's forehead creased as he realized that they were quite possibly going to be left with only one option.

            He didn't know if Wes would live through the night if Anni didn't.  

            "So you're not going to be able to use the four-year-old to fight evil," a voice drawled lowly.  Dakota pushed past Angel and Lorne and began to descend the stairs into the basement.  "Whatever will we do?"

Lorne whistled lowly.  That girl had attitude.

            Angel said nothing.  As he'd learned with Faith long ago, sometimes it was best to say nothing at all.

            Connor wasn't quite so wise.  "You just don't understand about Hopie," he said.

            Dakota smiled a deadly smile at him.  She ran her hands along the edge of one of the swords of the seesaw.  A tiny drop of blood rose up on her finger tips, and she licked it, slowly.

            "What I don't understand, Shaggy," she said, "is why you're playing with a seesaw."

            Connor stared at her.

            Dakota snorted.  "In your dreams, Junior," she said, motioning toward the stairs.  "I think Gidget wants you back upstairs."  Dakota innocently made a whipping gesture, complete with sound, grinning at Connor.

            Connor stared at her.  "How'd you know her first name was Gidget?" he asked

            Dakota's mouth dropped open.  "You have got to be kidding me," she said, her voice a bit hoarse.  "I was just referring to the oh-so-perkiness of her.  The girl's first name is actually Gidget?  I think I'd go by Dawn too."

            "Whatever you say, Lil Faith," Connor said, leaving the room, seesaw still in tact.  Kody gritted her teeth, but once she was alone in the basement, she made quick work of surveying the seesaw.  If she wasn't mistaken, those swords looked nice and sharp, and she had a feeling that she was going to need something of the sharp and pointy variety before night fall.

            "Want.  Take.  Have."  Somehow, the words were beginning to sound hollow to her, but Kody pushed the thought out of her mind.

            The metal flashed in front of Maddy's eyes as Faith, in a blur of motion, took out two of the demon guards at once.  

            Lindsey, his muscles taut and his shirt torn from the shoulder, plunged a knife into another demon's heart.

            Kendall fought, pushing Joss behind her, as a something she had tentatively identified as a 'butt-ugly demon' charged them both.  Kendall dodged the spiked arm that came flying toward her face, losing her balance for the instant that allowed the demon's second left hand to grab her neck and lift her off the ground.

            Feet dangling, Kendall gasped for air.  A second later, she brought her right leg up against the side of his face.  A resounding gong filled the air, and had Kendall been able to breathe, she would have cursed the metallic substance that was oozing from the demon's gargantuan pores and immediately solidifying.

            Behind Kendall, Joss gasped for air, as if she, too, were being strangled.

            _His hands were gentle on her neck, and little Joscelyn looked at Mr. Travers, her eyes wide.  She wished the other girls were here.  She wished that she was older, like them, better like them.  Mr. Travers had liked the other girls.  He'd never liked her, and now she was all alone with him.  If only she could make him like her, make them all like her. Then maybe the others would come back, and then she wouldn't be all alone._

_            "You've always been a disappointment," Travers said, his breath warm on her small face.  For a moment, the fingers tightened and she couldn't breathe at all.  Then he let her go.  "You're pathetic," he said, smiling.  Always smiling._

Joss snapped out of it and launched herself at the demon full force, letting out a strangled cry that sounded inhuman.  She didn't fight like a Potential.  There were no well-timed kicks or powerful punches.  Joss threw herself at him, digging her nails into what looked like his eyeballs with the ferocity of a rabid animal and sinking her teeth into whatever flesh was available.

            The demon dropped Kendall, and the girl managed to regain her weapon.  A moment later, the demon was lying dead on the floor, and Joss, drenched in sweat, looked down at the floor.

            "You never did fight fair," Kendall commented.

            Joss snorted.  "Like you ever do," she said, thinking of the time she'd spent duct taped to the door.  Fighting fair didn't get you anywhere in life, Joss knew, and she knew also, deep down, that Mr. Travers had been right.  She was a pathetic Potential, but she swore to herself, as she did every day, that she wouldn't always be.

            She wiped the demons blood on her jeans, her eyes glazing over just a bit.

            "Demon!" Kendall shrieked.  "Behind you."  Kendall smiled at the demon, this one less ugly, but with even more appendages than the last one.  

            In the tradition of witty banter, Kendall faced the demon.  "Careful," she said impishly.  "Joss eats demon."

            Oz stroked one hand gently over Kate's hair.  She sat there for a moment, breathing in his smell and just listening to the sound of his heart beat.

            After a moment, she sat up.

            "I'm sorry," she said, wiping her eyes.

            Oz shrugged.  "It happens," he said simply.

            "Not to me," Kate said, knowing how proud and foolish the words sounded.

            Oz just looked at her, his expression never changing.  Somehow, Kate got the feeling that he was slightly bemused in a sensitive type of way.  How very odd.

            Kate rose, reluctant to leave his arms.  Oz stood with her, never saying a word, and for the first time, the silence in the room didn't feel uncomfortable to Kate.  She didn't feel like filling it with accusations or excuses.  It just was.

            She shoved her hands in her back pockets in what Oz saw as a very vulnerable motion.  "I have to go," she said.

            Oz said nothing.  He didn't need to.

            "I don't care what I have to do," Kate said, "but that girl, Anni… she's not going to die.  None of them are, not if I can help it."

            "Works for me," Oz said casually, putting his hand on the small of her back for an elongated moment.

            Fred chewed on the edge of her pen, thinking.  "There's not much margin of error here," she said, "but I think we can do it."

            Willow looked down at her own notes.  "As long as we can access the magical juice we need in an instant, it should work."

            "Juice?" Wes asked.

            Willow looked at him and nodded.  "Technical term," she said quickly.

             "There might be a teensy, weensy problem with that, pop tart," Lorne said from the doorway.

            Everyone turned their attention that way.  "Hopie's magic can't be used in a balance spell," Angel said lowly.  He looked at Willow.  "Do you have enough power to do it on your own?"

            Willow wrinkled her brow.  Wesley's hand found hers and squeezed.  She squeezed back.  Hard.

            "I don't know," she said, a bit nervously.  "I can tap into that kind of power, but I might not be able to… un-tap."  Willow bit her bottom lip, and thinking of Anni, she nodded.  "I can try," she said.

            Buffy looked at her.  "You can do it, Will," she said.

            "You were a cheerleader, weren't you, B?" Dakota asked, coming back into the room.

            Buffy pushed down her instinctive desire to thoroughly flounce the miniature Faith.  Where had she learned to speak like Faith?  Honestly, Buffy thought Kody's Faith-speak was  edging on creepy.

            "I brought pretties," Kody said, her voice walking the line between surly and casual.  She threw Buffy a sword, and a moment later, she handed her several stakes.

            Dakota felt a tug on the bottom of her jeans.  She looked down.  Hopie stared back up at Kody, reproachfully, as Cale and Cordy entered the room.

            "Did you take my seesaw apart?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at the girl who looked an awful lot like her Aunt Faith.

            "Sorry kid, those're the breaks," Dakota said.  She surprised everyone by kneeling down next to Hopie.  "Tell you what, Connor will give you a piggy-back ride."  

            "Thanks, Bitty Faith," Hopie said happily and launched herself at Connor's back, full speed.

            Connor glared at Kody, who didn't even look in his general direction.   She was too busy scowling at the fact that she had been demoted from Lil Faith to Bitty Faith.

            "Will someone go get Crossbow?" Hopie asked in her cute, little girl voice.

            Spike picked up the Crossbow from its spot on the floor next to what appeared to be a drawing of Angel and some hair gel.

            "Here you go, Half Bit," he said.

            "You guys ready?" Angel asked.  The group nodded silently, and Anni walked over to the weapons case and loaded herself up with stakes.  Finally, she picked up two daggers.  She stuck one in her belt, and the other she handed to Jordy.

            "I may need your help," she said softly.  Anni didn't know if she was brave enough to do it herself.  She took a deep breath and met Wesley's eyes.

            "Never," he said.  "If you kill yourself, so help me, Annabella, I will thrash you within an inch of your life."  No one commented on the ridiculousness of his words.

            Fred said nothing about the margin of error for the spell.  Somehow, she sensed that it wasn't the right time.

            "Ari's at a park about five blocks from here," Anni said, getting a flash of the world as seen through her other half's eyes.  "She knows we're coming.  She's waiting for us."

            Angel looked around the room, and with a small nod on his part, they were off.

            Ari smiled brightly.  "Come," she said in Anni's voice.  "You're moving like lambs to the slaughter.  Better that you bring the feast to me.  My pets will be hungry."

            She looked at the horizon.  The sun was inching its way down, and darkness was beginning to settle over Los Angeles.

            As the fight raged, Lilah walked blithely toward the door.  Reaching out, Nic grabbed her hair and threw the woman to the floor.

            "I don't like it when people mess with Maddy," she said.  "And neither do a lot of powerful people in England."

            Lilah stood up, her eyes flashing even as she realized that the odds in this fight were starting to tilt in Lindsey's favor.  "Then I suppose that no one would like the fact that she's about to die," Lilah said.  "Sorry to leave so abruptly, but you people have a kiddo to save, and I have places to be and hell to raise."  She smiled.  "Figuratively of course."

            An instant before she left, Lilah met Faith's eyes.  "And to think there are two of you in this world," she said.  "Your father ought to be castrated."  Faith ducked a blow and stared at Lilah.  What exactly was the woman saying?

            "I forgot," Lilah said, "you're an ignorant little slut.  Ask your boy.  If he doesn't know, he at least has a hunch."  With that, the woman walked out the door.

At the side of the room, Maddy was on the floor, pinned to the ground by a brownish-green arm.

            Reaching her hands out blindly, Maddy felt a piece of something that felt like glass.  Grabbing it in her right hand and feeling a charge of energy, she slashed the glass across the demon's face as he moved to snap her neck.

            Coming up behind them, Nicolaa decapitated the demon in one smooth motion.  As she did so, Gunn finished off the demon that Joss and Kendall were fighting, and the room fell silent.

            Clay picked his little sister up off the ground and hugged her tightly.  "What the hell did you leave the hotel for?" he asked.

            "Language, Clayton," Maddy reminded him, her voice shaking a little.  She looked down at her hand.  The glass hadn't cut it.  "At least we know these Orbs of Lagassis are good for something," she said.

               Lindsey smiled.  "You broke her orb," he said, remembering that he had been the one to break Lilah's last priceless paper weight.  "Nice move."

            Gunn let out a low whistle.  "Check out the work someone did on these statues," he said.  Looking back at the girls, he changed his mind.  "On second thought, don't," he told them.  "This ain't fit for children."

            "Madeline," Clay said, and then he paused.  "I don't even want to know," he finished.

            A moment later, the sound of a cell phone ringing filled the air, and Lindsey pulled it out of his pocket.  "We've got Maddy.  Everyone's all right," he said.  He paused, listening to Cordelia speak on the other end.

            "We're on our way," he said, hanging up.  He looked around the room, his muscles exposed through the tear in his shirt.

            "We're doing the showdown thing with Ari," he said.  "They need all of the backup they can get.  If we can't hold off the vamps while Willow works her spell…" Lindsey trailed off.

            "The other options aren't pretty," he said.  

            Gunn looked at the demon bodies and appendages scattered across the floor.  "Well that was a nice warm up courtesy of Lilah and Wolfram and Hart," he said.

            "Damn bitch," Maddy said, her voice heated.

            No one chastised the girl for her language.  They were all in agreement.

            Lorne walked hesitantly up to Kate as the group made its way quickly toward the park.  "How about I stay with the little nipper?" he said without preamble.  "Fighting's not really my thing, and he's still a wee bit young to be in the midst of so many flying stakes.  We can just stay at the side lines until Willow needs him for the spell and whatnot."

            Kate swallowed her dislike for all demons for a moment.  "Thanks," she said simply.  "Cale baby," she called, pulling the little boy away from his current state of Hopie worshipping.  "Go with the green man," she said.

            Cale looked up at Lorne suspiciously, but after a little coaxing from his mother, Cale took Lorne's hand.

            "Cordy," Lorne called the instant she got off the phone.  "Do you want me to take Hopie too, since she won't be able to help with the mojo?"

            "Not funny," Hopie said, crossing her arms, Crossbow and all, over her chest.  "I can still fight."

            Cordy looked down.  "It's okay," she said.  "Faith's coming.  She won't let anything happen to Hopie, and honestly, we might need her."  Lorne nodded and picked up Cale.  

            "Maybe," Hopie said slowly, "I should go with Uncle  Lorne, to make sure nothing happens to Cale."  She looked around at the group en masse.  "You have to help babies," she said.

            "Not baby," Cale said, following the conversation surprisingly well.

            "Sometimes babies help us," Hopie said, skipping over to Lorne, as means of a peace offering toward Cale.

            "Not baby," Cale replied stubbornly.

            A moment later, the two children ceased talking, as the sun set below the horizon, and Ari came into view.

            "You're too late," she said, and Wes had to remind himself that he wasn't looking at Anni.  She was someone else, something else.  "The sun has set, and vampires are coming now, from all over, just to be with me.  We're going to devour you."  Her eyes glowed a misty purple, and her voice lowered to a purr. 

 "And then," Ari said dreamily, "we're going to devour the world."

Willow nodded, and Connor, Dakota, and Chance moved into position.  Lorne stepped cautiously toward the spot Fred indicated, Cale in his arms and Hopie, Crossbow and all, at his heels.

Anni walked slowly toward her position, trying to distract Ari's attention from the others.

Ari threw out her hand, and Chance was thrown several feet in the air and out of position.

Anni withdrew the dagger.  "Either way, you die," she said.

Vampires began filling the park.  "Either way," Ari replied, "they die too."

The fight broke out then, viciously, as two vampires jumped Spike, and Spike and Angel put on their game faces.  The sound of the battle was deafening, and some sort of supernatural wind began beating fiercely at Willow's face.

Chance struggled to her feet.

Ari moved her arm back.  "Touch her again and I slit my throat," Anni said, bringing the dagger to rest at her throat.  "If I bleed, you bleed."

Ari looked around wildly as Chance got back into position.  "You're bluffing," she said.

"Try me," Anni said, nicking her throat a bit with the knife and never taking her eyes off of her other half.

A small trail of blood ran down Ari's neck, identical to that which ran down Anni's.

"Anni!" Wes screamed, overcome a moment later by three vampires.

"Bella!" Hopie cried alarmed.  Buffy, Xander, Anya, Kate ,and Oz circled around Willow, fighting off the vampires who tried to attack the witch.  

A vampire lunged toward Cale, and Hopie promptly shot him with his crossbow.  In that moment, Faith, Lindsey, and the others arrived and joined the fight.  Faith immediately fought her way toward Hopie.  All things said and done, she was the Shansu child's Champion first and foremost.

Willow's voice rose in the supernatural wind as Anni calmly watched to see if the spell would work.

The roots of Willow's hair began to turn dark, and Anni balked.

"Stop!" she yelled. 

"I need the power," Willow said, her voice guttural.

 "The baby."  Anni said.  She took back the knife, her decision made, just as Faith reached Hopie.  Anni wasn't about to let anything happen to Willow and the baby, not when she knew deep down that the Witch her brother loved didn't have the kind of power they needed to put Ari back where she had come from.

"No, Bella!" Hopie screamed, powerless to stop the older girl, tears streaming down her baby face even as she shot two more vampires.

Willow kept chanting.  She just needed a little more power.

All of a sudden, Faith found herself feeling as if she were on fire.  

Bright white beams of light shot out from Faith's stomach, and from Willow's, connecting Cale and Connor, Chance and Dakota, Anni and Ari, and freezing Anni's hand as the dagger sliced open her throat.  All around them, vampires stood, frozen to the ground as the light filled the park.

Willow finished chanting, filled with a new power, and a power surge went through the air, knocking all of them to the ground.  The dagger flew out of Anni's hand, and she was lifted by the force of Willow's spell off of the ground, to face Ari midair.

  In the deafening silence, Anni knew that only she could hear Ari's words.  "You would have killed us," Ari hissed.  Seeing the blood on Anni's neck and feeling it stream down her own, she continued, "You may have."

"I wasn't going to let you hurt them," Anni said, as the two of them began to circle each other midair, neither girl in control of her own body.

"You still don't understand," Ari said, a cruel look on her face.  "I am you, you are me.  We would have killed them, because that's what we were meant to do, when you and I were one.  You've felt the darkness, the power, but you were too damn scared to take it.  It had nothing to do with making the 'right' decision, with choosing to be good.  You were afraid of what we could be, and that fear crippled you in the moment of choice."

"I hate you," Anni whispered.

"You only hate yourself," Ari replied, her words lost in the whirlwind as her body was slammed into Anni's.

The wind subsided, and then there was only one girl, and she fell to the ground, blood still streaming off her neck.

The beams of light, two from Faith's stomach and one from Willow's, stopped shining then, and Anni lay motionless on the ground.

All around them, the vampires began to move again, and the warriors threw themselves back into battle.

As they felt the power Ari had held over them disappearing, many of the vampires left, but still, the battle raged on.

Dakota, now free to move, threw herself at vampire and began beating it fiercely, rhythmically.

"Stake it," Chance yelled, thrusting a stake into a vampire of her own.  Dakota continued punching.  "Stake it!" Chance yelled again.

After several more punches, Dakota thrust a stake into the vampire.  She was surprised at the rush she felt.

Two vamps rushed the demi-Faith, and Dakota found herself overwhelmed.  An instant later, Maddy charged in, punching and kicking for all that she was worth, and another girl Dakota didn't recognize helped Dakota kill off the vampire she was fighting.  After the vamp exploded into dust, the girl stood there, motionless for a moment, and Dakota pushed her out of the way to get to Maddy.

All over the park, vampires were fleeing, the sound of their compatriots exploding into dust at an incredible rate providing them great incentive to leave.

As Dakota thrust a stake into the heart of the vamp Maddy was fighting, she realized that the fight was winding down.

Jordy ran to Anni's side, pressing his hands helplessly over the cut in her neck.  Wes ran toward his sister, shoving the young werewolf ruthlessly aside.  Ripping off some part of his shirt, Wes wrapped the material around her neck and checked for a pulse.

"God, don't die on me Anni," he whispered.  His fingers found the pulse.  It was light, but steady, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

Anni opened her eyes a bit.  "Am I dead?" she asked.

"No," Wes said fiercely.  "You're not."

"How?" she asked.  Wes shook his head.

"Shhhh. Don't talk, baby-girl" he said.  Jordy crept back to sit at Anni's other side.  \

"How?" the werewolf said for Anni, knowing that she couldn't say the words herself.

"Sometimes," Hopie said loudly, a smile in her voice, "babies help us."

"Is she okay?" Willow asked Wes.

"She'll have a scar," Wes said, thinking of the scar he bore at the base of his own neck.  "We need to get her to a hospital, but I think her pulse is all right."

"Hospital might be a good idea," Faith said.  Everyone looked at her.  "I think this is the world's fastest pregnancy," she said, "because my water just broke."

"Crazy laser beams will do that for you," Dakota muttered.

"Yeah, hospital would be of the good," Willow said, her voice shaky and a little excited.  

The others looked at her.

"You too?" Kody asked, feeling as if she were caught in a soap opera.

"It's all about balance," Fred said.

"Yeah," Dakota replied.  "I guess it is."  As Lindsey swept Faith off of her feet and Xander helped Willow to keep her balance, Kody turned to the girl next to her.

"Who the hell are you?" she asked, wondering why she felt like she'd never seen the girl who had come to her aid in battle.

"Colette," the girl said, her voice barely above a whisper.  "We met earlier.  Don't feel bad.  People always forget about me."  Dakota shrugged.  She didn't actually care overmuch.

They brought chaos with them to the hospital, the whole entourage, including tired and cranky Hopie and Cale, insisting on coming along.  The doctor rushed Anni to a room, as they prepared a joint room for Willow and Faith.

"Put me down for a second," Faith whispered in Lindsey's ear. 

He complied, but issued his wife a strict warning.  "Ten seconds and I'm picking you back up," his said, worry clear in his overprotective-Daddy voice.

"What do you know that I don't know?" Faith asked him, looking pointedly at Kody.

"I haven't confirmed it yet," Lindsey said, "but I have good reason to believe that Dakota's father is your biological father."

Kody stared at him.  "I always knew my dad was a man-whore," she muttered.

Faith looked back at Lindsey.  "When were you going to tell me?" she asked.

"As soon as I was sure," Lindsey replied, worry creasing his face.

In a swift motion, Faith tore off his shirt.  "It was torn already," she said with an impish grin, and Lindsey knew that his wife wasn't letting her trust issues interfere with this day.  

"Your ten seconds are up," Lindsey informed her, sweeping her back into his arms.  Faith snuggled down against his bare chest, letting out an outraged scream a moment later as the pains returned.

"How long is this gonna take?" she asked, panting.

"Not long?" Willow suggested hopefully, squeaking a bit as she did.

Dakota looked at Faith, wondering if they really were sisters.  "At the rate you've been going," she said finally, "it shouldn't take long."

TBC… now I know that was a lot of action and not a lot of fluff, but hey, the next two chapters are near solid fluff, with a big and important revelation in each one.  Next up, the births (and names!), and then in the final chapter, the A/C wedding.

Now it's uber late, I'm tired, and it's been another extremely long chapter, so please REVIEW!   


	14. Perfect

DISCLAIMER: You guys know who I own and who I don't.  I don't own the BtVS and AtS characters, past or present.  I do own everyone else.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is the first of two fluffy chapters, tying up the loose ends of this series for now.  Maddy's story, when I write it, will take place somewhere in between three and five years in the future, so unless I suddenly change my mind, two more chapters is all there is going to be of little, little Hopie, Cale as a toddler, and the Potentials as young teenagers.

Also, this chapter is going to be pretty short, because we're having a power outage here, and I don't know how long my laptop battery will last.

Oh, and this is probably the first chapter that will actually approach the pg-13 rating, and that's only because of some language on Faith's part.  Just a forewarning.

THINE OWN SELF: Chapter Fourteen

            "Son of a bitch!"  The female scream, heated and oddly high pitched in its last syllable, was heard as far as the waiting room down the hall.

            Gunn let out a low whistle.  "Something tells me that the doctor is going to get his ass slayed if he doesn't get Faith an epidural soon," he said.

            Cordy tried to suppress a smile.  "Hopie, baby," she said.  "Cover your ears for Momma."

            Hopie compliantly did as requested, a wicked smile on her little face.  Aunt Faith knew some _bad words._

            Kate lifted her head off of Oz's shoulder long enough to make sure that Cale was still asleep in Jordy's lap.  He was, his head snuggled into the older boy's chest, Jordy stared off, his eyes a bit glazed over.  They hadn't heard anything on Anni yet.

            Their group had managed to push all but a few people out of the waiting room.  

            "Hope those babies are born before sunrise," Hopie said loudly.  "Otherwise Daddy and Mr. Spike will just…"

            Everyone looked at Hopie and she batted her eyelashes innocently before turning her attention to the couples in the room.

            Her momma and daddy were definitely currently the snuggliest couple.  Cordelia was sitting in Angel's lap, partly because of the lack of chairs in the waiting room, and partly because he just needed to feel her warm touch, to know that she was alive.

            Kate sat silently at Oz's side, her head on her shoulder and her eyes vulnerable.  She didn't want to let herself be vulnerable again.  She'd been so stupid the last time, chosen so poorly.  She pushed the thought out of her head as Oz's hand squeezed hers softly.

            As Hopie surveyed the next couple in the room, an impish grin crossed her face, and she walked over to them, holding her arms up, a silent demand to join the snuggle fest.  Sighing, Spike lifted her up, and sat her on his lap next to Buffy.  Hopie clamored into Buffy's lap and snuggled down.  Buffy touched the top of her head slightly, smoothing the hairs that had escaped the child's ponytail holder.  Spike mimicked the motion, smoothing down Buffy's runaway hairs.

            Fred and Gunn, Nic and Clay, and Dawn and Connor were all being a bit more subtle about their special physical contact time, and for a moment, the room fell quiet except for the chattering of the Potentials.

            "You did _what Maddy?" Chance squealed, trying to keep her voice to a whisper and failing miserably._

            "I decorated Lilah's office with some special drawings." Maddy said, making mental notes of the curse words that floated out of the delivery room and into the waiting room.  Faith certainly was creative.

            "Drawings of what exactly?" Kody asked.  She knew quite well what the drawings were, but she also knew that Maddy was dying to say the words, and the demi still felt bad about indirectly having caused Maddy's kidnapping.

            "Well, on this one statue I drew a penis," Maddy said, quite loudly.

            "Madeline," Clay said in a low, horrible voice.

            Maddy gave him an angelic and prissy look.  "I'll have you know there's no shame in the word penis," she said.  "It's an anatomical term."

            "She's right, you know," a wayward nurse commented as she walked by.

            Clay narrowed his eyes at his little sister, but said nothing.  Of their entire family, he'd always loved Maddy the best.  In fact, as far as he had been able to tell, all of his brothers had felt the same way.  

            After another piercing scream, Anya came into the waiting room.  "There is a lot of noise," she said.  "No babies, and no monetary compensation as yet for the pain."

            "Anni?" Jordy asked, his voice low and steady.

            "Wes is still in with her," Anya replied.  "Which is why Xander is in with Willow."  Anya paused for a moment.  "You know," she said thoughtfully, "in some ways, having a baby is a lot like sex, only without the toys and with strong pain relievers."

            Chance's eyes widened, as Faith screamed again.

            "She doesn't mean that," Buffy said, adjusting Hopie on her lap.

            "All I'm saying…" Anya said.

            "Don't," Cordelia and Buffy interrupted her at once.  "Just don't."

            Dakota looked at Anya.  "You want to grab a cup of coffee?" she asked.  "I don't mind talking about sex."

            "I don't like coffee," Anya said.  Then she beamed at the younger girl.  "Okay."

            "You want to come, Connor?" Kody drawled.  "Take notes?"

              Connor narrowed her eyes at Dakota.

            Hopie jumped off of Buffy's lap and ran over to Kody.  She pulled on the older girl's pant leg until Dakota bent down.

            "Connor doesn't have really special grownup time yet," Hopie whispered loudly.  Dakota looked down at Hopie, an odd half grin on her face.

            "She means they don't have sex," Anya clarified.

            Connor and Dawn continued to engage is some quality synchronized glaring in Dakota's general direction.

            Just then, Xander walked into the room.  

            "Babies yet?" Hopie asked, jumping up and down.

            Xander shook his head.  "But Anni's had several stitches, and the doctors think she's going to be fine.  They want to keep her overnight, just because she's lost so much blood.  Wes is with Willow now.  Jordy, Anni was asking for you, and An, stop talking to Little Faith about sex, because honestly, it's just kind of creepy."

            "Okay," Dakota said loudly.  "Let's get this straight.  My name is Dakota.  If you want, you can even call me Kody.  For all I care, you can call me whatever insult you can come up with.  But.  Stop.  Calling.  Me.  Little.  Faith."

            "Whatever you say, Faith-ette," Gunn muttered.

            Fred poked him in the ribs.  "Be nice, Charles," she whispered.

            "Well, Kody," Xander said, curbing the urge to call the girl some derivative of the name Faith.  "Faith requested that you come into the delivery room."

            As Kody reluctantly went back towards the delivery room, Hopie climbed back into Spike's lap.

            "Momma and Daddy are getting married soon," Hopie told Spike.  

            Spike stifled a grin.  "I know," he said.

            "When are you gonna marry Buffy?" Hopie asked.

            Spike said nothing, and Buffy remained suspiciously quiet as well.

            Kendall filled the silence.  "Joss," she said, thinking about Kody's little temper tantrum.  "I think you've finally moved down one slot on my 'to flounce' list."

            "I second that," Dawn said darkly.

            "Son of a bitch," Maddy said.  When everyone looked at her, she grinned.  "Faith said it," she said by way of an excuse.

            "Well," Nic said reasonably, "when you have a baby after only being pregnant a few days, then you can curse too."

            "Everyone around here procreates like bunnies," Kendall said sarcastically.

            Anya looked around, wide eyed.  "Bunnies?!" she shrieked.

            Kody stepped hesitantly into the birthing room.  Faith's forehead was covered in sweat, and Willow was matching her yelp by yelp.

            "What do you want?" Kody said, jamming her hands into her back pocket.

            "I want to go numb below my shoulders," Faith said.  "But it doesn't look like that's going to be happening, so come over here and shut your mouth."

            Just then, both women let out yells.  

            "Mother F…" Lindsey put his hand over his wife's mouth.

            "Not around the babies, darling," he said.

            "For the love of all things good and chocolatey!" Willow screamed.

            Wes smoothed back her hair, talking to her softly and kissing her hand.

            Willow caught her breath.  "How's Anni?" she asked.

            "She'll be fine," Wes said.  "Though I may have to kill her."

            "She did what she had to do," Dakota muttered.  "More than a lot of people."  The girl turned her attention to Faith.  "So now because my dad's had more women than I've had cigarettes, you and I are supposed to be sisters?" she asked.

            Faith looked at Dakota.  "I guess," she said.  "I never knew who my dad was.  My mom never would say.  As far as I'm concerned, I don't have family."  Faith breathed through the pain.  "Except for Lindsey, and these babies, and you and all of our friends."  A tear slipped down Faith's cheek.  "I'm not normally so sappy," she said, the lackadaisical tone returning to her voice.

            "Anyway," Lindsey said.  "We haven't had much time to think of names, and we were wondering if you had any ideas."

            Dakota said nothing.  For a rare moment, she was speechless.

            "If you have a boy, just don't give him a girl's name," she said, staring pointedly at Lindsey.  "And if it's a girl, you really should give her a girlier name than her father's."  Having put her two cents in, Kody looked down.

            "Can I go now?" she asked.

            "No," Faith said, panting.  "With the hell I'm sure you're going to put us through, you have to suffer through this too."

            Lindsey smiled a charming smile at her.  "At least you know we won't call you Little Faith," he said.

            Dakota shot a questioning look in Willow's general direction.

            "Too busy with the whole birth give-y thing to call you Little Faith," Willow confirmed between breaths.

            Faith looked at Lindsey.  "I'll make you a deal," she said.  "If they're girls, you have to name them, and if they're boys, I'll name them."

            "As long as you swear not to name our son Lindsey," Lindsey said.  "Or Shannon.  Or Ashley."

            Faith glared at him for a moment and squeezed his hand so hard that it turned white around the knuckles.

            "Agreed," she said.

            "And you can't name our kid Hope, Love, Faith, Grace, Charity, or God Forbid, Chastity." Faith said.

            Dakota snorted.

            The doctor came in and looked at both women.  "You're both looking just fine," he said.  "It shouldn't be much longer.  An hour or so at most."

            Faith shot him dagger eyes.  "I'll show you an hour at most," she said dangerously.  The doctor backed away slowly.

            Jordy stepped cautiously into Anni's room.  She looked back at him.

            "Hey," he said simply.

            "Hey you," she said, her voice hoarse and barely above a whisper.  For a moment they said nothing.  "Just sit?" Anni asked him.

            He nodded, and he sat on the edge of her bed, holding her hand in his.  

            "She's not gone," Anni said after several minutes.  "She'll never be gone.  Part of her will always be inside me, because she wasn't lying.  She was everything about myself that I've always feared and hated.  I wanted to kill her."

            Jordy looked at her, silent for a moment before speaking.  "We all have stuff," he said simply.  He was, after all, only thirteen.

            "Yeah," Anni said slowly.  "I guess we do."  She paused.  "Am I an aunt yet?"  Jordy stood and stuck his head out into the hallway.  

            "Nope," he said.  "I can still hear them both yelling."

            Hopie looked at Cale, now lying asleep on the floor, and climbing off of Spike's lap, she walked over to him, her eyes starting to droop.  She dropped unceremoniously down to the floor beside him, and curling up next to him, she fell instantly asleep.

            In sleep, Cale responded to the warmth beside him, moving closer to the sleeping girl, until the two were huddled on the ground like puppies in a litter, a mass of arms and legs and contented sleepy sounds.

            "Oh.  Wow.  Oh.  Yeoooowwwww!" Willow yelled.

            Wes's tough exterior faded, and he looked at the woman who was about to bear his son anxiously.  He was worried that there would be some sort of mystical side effect.  What if Willow's body couldn't birth Lilah's son?  What if something happened to her?

            "Oh, don't be such a worry-guy," Willow said, her face twisting up a bit.  "It's not that bad."

            The sounds from Faith's side of the room begged to differ.

            Suddenly, Hopie opened her eyes, and she shook Cale awake.

            "Hopie, let him sleep," Cordy chided gently.

            "Wake up, Cale," Hopie whispered fiercely.  "The babies are here."

            Cale opened his eyes.  "Really?" he asked.

            Hopie nodded.  "Almost," she said happily.

            From the delivery room, the sounds of screaming amplified for a few moments, and then, after three minutes, they stopped all together.

            Lindsey sat on the hospital bed next to his wife, and he pressed a firm kiss to her temple.  

            "I love you," he said.  Then he leaned down and kissed each of the two babies the doctor had placed in his wife's arms.  "And I love you.  And I love you," he said reverently.

            Even Kody was looking at the two tiny, dark-haired babies with a soft expression on her normally hardened face.

            On the other side of the room, Wes stared, a shocked expression on his face, at the tiny baby the nurse had laid into Willow's arms.  His child.  His daughter.

            "I don't understand," Willow said, looking at the child, already absolutely in love.  "Lilah's baby was male."

            Wes wrinkled his forehead a bit.  "I don't understand it either," he said, reaching his finger down to touch the child's tiny fingers.  "Right this second, it doesn't matter.  She's perfect."

            "Perfect," Faith repeated, the idea a new concept to her.  In that single instant, life really was perfect.

            Everyone in the waiting room jumped to their feet when Kody entered the room.  She looked at them, feeling out of place, but loving the fact that they were all looking to her for answers.  She felt like she was actually a part of something.

            "They're fine," she said.  "All of them.  You guys can go in if you want.  The doctor was against it, but Faith convinced him otherwise."  A wry grin lit up Kody's face at the thought of Faith's choice method of convincing.

            Hopie jumped up and down.

            Kody bent over.  "Sorry, short stuff," she said.  "They couldn't convince the doctor to let you little ones in.  They said you carried too many germs."

            Hopie continued jumping up and down, and Cale imitated her, not knowing exactly why.  "They're here," Hopie said.  "And they're together.  Just like they're supposed to be.  She won't be lonely anymore.  She borrowed it, but she gave it back, and now, everything is juuuuuust right.  Just like in the story."

            The little girl continued babbling, and the others shrugged.  Whether it was because she was a little kid or attached to a cryptic magic, there were a lot of times when no one understood a word that Hopie said.

            "I'm going to go in and see her," Angel said.  Cordy stood and followed him, as did Buffy.

            Jordy walked to the door of Anni's room and peered around carefully.  Then he tiptoed over to her bed, picked her up carefully, and carried her toward the room where the babies were all crying in unison.

            Wes picked up his child tenderly and rocked her as he remembered rocking Anni when he had been quite young himself.

            Faith looked at her two and started laughing.  "They've got my lungs," she said.

            Buffy looked at Willow and smiled.  "You know, Will," she said, taking the baby's sex in stride.  "I think she might have your eyes."

            "It doesn't matter," Willow said, and she truly meant it.  Whether the child was hers or Lilah's, or some combination thereof, Willow loved the small baby more than she'd ever loved anyone or anything.  Wes handed the baby to Buffy.

            "I feel like I'm going to break her," Buffy whispered.

            Faith motioned Cordelia over.  Very gently, Faith placed her son in Cordelia's arms.

            Then she looked at Angel. 

            "Oh no," Angel said.  "I'm not good with babies."

            "You were great with Connor," Cordy said, loving the feeling of holding a baby again.  In that moment, she knew that she wanted one of her own as soon as possible.

            Faith was adamant, and finally, Angel took the wailing child into his arms, and she screamed loudly at the indignity of it all.

            "Looks like she has her mommy's temper," Angel commented.

            "So," Cordy said.  "Who are these little guys we're holding?  Do you have names?"

            Faith nodded.  "I guess so," she said.  She took a deep breath and hoped that she wasn't screwing her son over with the name she'd picked.  Somehow, it just felt right.  Faith took a deep breath.

            "I sure hope I'm doing this right," she said.  "His name is Hayden."

            Lindsey looked at her, narrowing his eyes.

            "You never said I couldn't use your middle name," Faith pointed out.

            Angel smirked at Lindsey.  "Lindsey Hayden McDonald?" he said, raising one eyebrow.  "Your mother must have hated you."

            "Not so fast, lover," Faith said, using the old nickname.  Angel stiffened a bit.  "His full name is Hayden Liam McDonald."

            Angel flushed a bit at the use of his former name.  He silently cursed the leprechauns who'd brought his past to everyone's attention.  Then he grinned, a goofy grin that made him look indescribably funny.

            "And what about the little one I'm holding?" Angel asked.

            Faith turned her attention to Lindsey.  "Genevieve," Lindsey said.  

            Faith looked at him, knowing exactly where he had gotten the name, and her voice caught in her throat.  Genevieve had been her first watcher's name.  Before Lindsey, she'd been the only person Faith had ever truly trusted.  Only Lindsey would have remembered the one time Faith had mentioned Gen's name in the middle of a two AM conversation.

            "Genevieve North McDonald," Lindsey said.

            Faith raised an eyebrow.  "North?" she said.  "As in North Dakota?"

            Lindsey shrugged.  "Maybe I just think it sounds neat," he said.

            Faith smiled.  "North," she said.

            The little girl responded by screaming and thrashing her legs, making a look of stark panic settle over Angel's face.

            "North it is then," Lindsey chuckled.  The child screamed louder.  "She already recognizes her own name," the proud papa said, beaming.  "I've got the two smartest babies in the world."

            "I beg to differ on that," Wes said politely.

            "Have you two decided on a name?" Buffy asked them.  Just then, Anni and Jordy entered the room.  Anni looked at the tiny baby in Buffy's arms, and she felt an instant connection to the child.

            Wes looked at Willow and nodded.  "I would like you all to meet Taryn Isabella Wyndham-Pryce," he said.

            "We wanted the names to mean something," Willow explained.  "But we wanted them to be just for her, too."

            "Taryn after Tara," Buffy said softly.  Willow nodded.

            "Isabella?" Anni asked, her mouth dry.

            "Don't talk, luv," Wes said.  "You shouldn't even be out of bed."

            "After you, silly," Willow said to Anni.  "Arabella was out for obvious reasons, but we thought Isabella was kind of pretty."

            Anni nodded, a lump rising in her throat.  "It is," she said.

            In that moment, light began shining from each of the three children, beams of light that connected the three, making a brilliant triangle in the air.

            "Oh dear," Wes said.  After a moment, Angel, Buffy, and Cordelia held the three babies together.

            All three of them stopped crying, and the light beams became one thick light that went straight up, through the ceiling and toward the heavens.

            "Oh dear," Wesley said again.

            "You know," Buffy said, looking at Taryn and feeling her heart melting.  "There's probably a prophesy about this.  There's always a prophesy."

            Outside the delivery room door, a certain Harvard Law graduate stood, her mouth open in shock.  Lilah wasn't going to like this.  She wasn't going to like this at all.

            The law clerk/minion rushed out, and in the waiting room, she bumped into a little girl with dark hair and big eyes.

            "Tell her something," Hopie said, looking up at the woman.

            "Tell who?" the clerk asked innocently.

            Hopie looked straight at her, and the woman squirmed.

            "Tell her," the child said, "It's allllllll about balance."  And with that, Hopie starting turning around in circles until she lost her balance and fell down, her giggles rising in the air as Cale copied her motions.

            An hour later, the new parents were left alone together, the babies in the hospital nursery.

            Wes nuzzled Willow.  "I love you," he said simply.

            She looked back at him, and placed his hand over her heart.  "Yeah," she said simply.  "I love you too."

            "I already miss them," Faith whispered in Lindsey's ear.  "I miss having them close."

            Lindsey pulled his wife closer, in a warm embrace.  "We'll keep them safe and near us," he said, thinking of his own lonely childhood in a large, empty house much like Dakota's.  "Always."

            "We love them," Faith said simply.  She laid her head on Lindsey's chest and closed her eyes.

            Lindsey kissed the top of her head and then moved down to kiss her softly on the lips, closing his own eyes and saying a silent prayer of thanks to whatever power was handy.

            For once, life had turned out just right.

TBC… don't worry about the whole boy/girl thing on the Wes/Willow baby.  It was planned from the start.  You'll find out more details about it later, all I'm going to say is this: do you remember when Anni's hand got stuck to Willow's stomach?  Muahahahaha.

Next up, the Angel/Cordy wedding, and more fluffiness, if you all can take it.

REVIEW!  I mean it… even you lurkers who've been reading for a long time and think, "I'm lazy and she has enough reviews.  I don't really need to review."  Contrary to popular belief, not true. REVIEW (hey- that rhymes)…  


	15. Kisses

DISCLAIMER: I don't own the BtVS or AtS character, as they are owned by Joss Whedon et al.  I do own everyone else.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry for the long wait guys.  All I can say is that I've been sickly, and I've been busy with the not so fun end of writing that is querying publishers and putting together portfolios for agent.  All I have to say is yuck.  

Anyway, here's the last chapter, short and fluffy though it may be.  Not everything about the three children will be explained, as that is a mystery for another fic, but I'll do my best to lighten up the confusion a little bit.  Hopefully, by the time I post this I will have found at least one of my copies of Hamlet, of which I can currently locate exactly zero.  If I don't, you can look up the quote that is the title's origin on your own, should you feel so inclined.

This is the last of The Hopie Chronicles, taking place consecutively after Cordy and Connor found Hopie.  Eventually, I hope to do a sequel to the chronicles, or perhaps two, that take place in the future.  Maddy's story, Take Me as I am will come out either this later this summer or next fall, and it will take place three to five years after this chapter, with Maddy approaching either her sixteenth or eighteenth birthday.  The other fic, which may or may not ever be written, would concentrate on Hayden, Taryn, North/Gen (haven't decided which name the older version will go by yet) and their destiny, with Hopie and Cale being major players.  This would, obviously, take place somewhere between ten and fifteen years in the future, and like I say, it will quite possibly never be written.

Since you probably won't hear from me for a bit on the fanfiction front, should any of you wish to borrow any of my characters, including grown up versions of the babies, you are more than welcome to.  Simply disclaim that I own them and email me the link to your story.  The only exception to this is Maddy, who though she may be borrowed, I would request that you use her only in the context she exists in right now and that you not add anything to her list of powers, her history, or her relationships with the other characters.

Okay, now on with the Cordy/Angel wedding you have all waited so carefully for.

THINE OWN SELF: EPILOGUE (Three months later)

            "All right," Willow said sternly, "now you three have to be good and try really hard not to be the cutest ones at the wedding.  It's Cordy's wedding, and she should be the cutest one…" Willow trailed off, looking at the three babies.  "Who am I kidding?" she said.  "You three win, hands down."  Willow smiled a very goofy smile, and she couldn't help but pick Taryn up and cuddle her for a moment.

            In the three months since their birth, Faith and Willow had learned the hard way that the children didn't like to be separated.  Gen, or North, as Lindsey and Hopie insisted on calling her, was a screamer, Taryn was a crier, and Hayden tended to just send little baby glares at anyone who would look in his general direction.  

            Accordingly, Willow and Wes had made the difficult decision to leave Sunnydale permanently for L.A., bringing Anni with them.  The details weren't clear yet on the prophesy that involved the three children and their supernatural births, but Willow had known deep down that they couldn't separate Taryn from the other two.

            Willow sat Taryn back in her carrier, and a moment later, she felt someone tugging at the bottom of her dress.

            "Momma says that you better not get any baby juice on your dress, Aunt Willow," Hopie informed her blithely.  'Baby juice' was Hopie's term for spit up.

            "All clean," Willow said, gesturing.

            "If you want, you can go see Momma and Aunt Faith and Fred and Buffy while I watch the babies for you," Hopie offered, batting her eyelashes.  She loved nothing more than to sit and talk with the babies, and if she hadn't known better, Willow would have sworn that the children understood every word that the little girl said.

            Willow looked down at Hopie.  "How bout you go get you go get someone big to help you," Willow suggested.  An instant later, Hopie was off and running.

            "You know, Cor," Faith said, letting out a low whistle.  "When you do a wedding, you do it right."

            Cordelia smiled, smoothing down the fabric of her white wedding dress.  Though she had been tempted towards the shimmery, intricately designed dresses, in the end she had chosen a simple and elegant white dress, with lace work across the bodice and a lightly flowing skirt.  

            "Hold still," Buffy said, hair pins in her mouth, trying to pin Cordelia's veil on straight.  

            Cordy looked in the mirror.  "There," she said, a soft smile spreading across her face.  "Perfect."

            "I'm just glad you didn't opt for pink," Faith said, glancing down at her bridesmaid dress, a simple black dress with white beading at the top and again at the waist.  

            "Black and white wedding," Buffy commented.  "Very chic."

            Looking in the mirror, Cordelia didn't feel chic.  She felt as if she'd stepped into a time warp and emerged a century earlier.  For the first time in her life, she felt untouched by the outside world.  She wasn't cynical or sarcastic, trendy or savvy.  She just was.

            "You know," Buffy said slowly, "I think this is the last place I ever expected to be."

            Faith arched an eyebrow.  "I thought being one of my bridesmaid's was the last place you ever expected to be.  And here I thought I was special, B."

            Buffy said nothing.  She simply met Cordelia's eyes, and for a moment, something unspoken passed between the two of them

            _He was my first love, Buffy thought._

            _He was the first person to ever see me as more than a pretty face, Cordy thought in return, though she hadn't heard Buffy's thoughts._

            _I loved him so much, so intensely, that I will never forget it.  Everything was life or death, literally, and sometimes I wished that we were the only two people in the world.  Buffy continued to stare, silently at Cordelia._

_            I want to see his face every morning.  I want to reach for him in the middle of every night.  I love him more than anyone ever loved me.  He's my daughter's father, and his son is my son.  _Cordy looked back at Buffy.

            _He loves you, Buffy thought finally.  __And I love someone else now._

"You look beautiful," Buffy said softly, brushing a hair out of Cordelia's face.

            "Did I miss anything?" Willow asked, rushing in, her own bridesmaid's dress perfectly clear of baby juice.  She'd been floored when Cordelia had asked her, but ever since she and Wes had moved into the Hyperion, Willow was slowly growing to realize that the unbelievable had happened.  Cordelia Chase had grown up.

            Cordy looked around.  "So where'd my flower girl go?" she asked, looking around for her daughter.

            "Statistics would suggest that she's with the babies," Fred said, speaking up for the first time since they'd all been in the room.

            "Well, go statistics," Willow said, sounding for a moment just as she had in high school.  Fred smiled at Willow.  The two of them had started to bond over their awkward math jokes.

            "Who else is watching the babies, Will?" Buffy asked.

            Willow grinned at them.  "Spike," she replied.

            "Hey, Mr. Spike," Hopie said.  "Did you bring Bob to the wedding?"

            "No, half-bit, I didn't bring the flamethrower with me to a wedding.  It didn't match the tux."  He narrowed his eyes at Hopie.  "You didn't bring Claude, did you?" he asked, referring to the child's own flame thrower.

            Hopie shook her head.  "I don't play with weapons near the babies," she confided in him seriously.  "And besides, Uncle Lindsey said he could teach me five ways to kill a man with my bare hands."  Hopie wrinkled her nose.  "He's so silly."

            Spike stared back at the three babies.  "What about you lot?" he asked.  "What did you bring with you to the wedding?"

            Hopie giggled.  "Balance," she said.  "They brought balance."  She bent down next to the babies and started talking to them.  "Show Mr. Spike what you can do, babies," she said softly.

            As the babies gurgled happily in their carriers, a soft light connected the three of them, and Spike found himself lifted off the ground.  A moment later, when he came crashing to the ground, he glared at the babies, each of them in turn, as he couldn't figure out exactly which one had done it.  Taryn was the only baby to herself show signs of magical power, but already Spike could tell that Faith's two were the troublemakers, and abnormally strong troublemakers at that.

            Looking at them, Spike grinned a goofy grin, and, as always, his heart melted.  By now, all of the children had hair, Hayden and Gen's dark, and Taryn's a brownish red fuzz.

            For a moment, Gen looked like she would fuss, but Hopie bent down next to her and patted the little baby comfortingly.  "It's all right, North," she said softly.  "It's all right Northstar.  Look at Mr. Spike.  Doesn't he look funny?"

            Spike raised one eyebrow at Hopie.  "I do not look funny," he responded.  Taryn gurgled happily at that moment, and Spike could have sworn that both of Faith's babies were smirking at him with little baby smirks.

            Spike sighed deeply.  He was about to OD on cuteness, and yet he couldn't help but think of little baby Spikes and little baby slayers running around with this lot.

            "Can you watch the babies during the cer-mony?" Hopie asked Spike.  "Cause I gotta be the flower girl."

            Spike nodded, secretly loving spending time with the little ones.

            Hopie skipped happily back to the dressing room, content that the babies were well taken care of.

            Angel looked nervously into the mirror.  He straightened his tie.  Then he smiled a goofy smile.

            "He never did get over being able to look in one of those damn things," Gunn said, referring to the gift the magical Shanshu child had bestowed upon Angel the first time she had called him Daddy.

            Over in the side of the room, Connor glared at his tuxedo.  

            "Hey Junior," Gunn said.  "Lighten up."

            Connor shot the older man a disgruntled look.

            "It could be worse, Connor," Lindsey said, grinning at Angel's obvious butterflies.  "At least he doesn't call you Little Angel."

            Connor tried not to smile at the obvious reference to Dakota, who had yet to truly break anyone from calling her Little Faith.

            Gunn snickered.  "Little Angel," he said contemplatively.

            "Don't make me kill you," Connor said, his voice low and no trace of humor on his face.

             Angel took a deep breath that was completely for show, as he actually didn't need to breathe.  "Let's do this," he said, his voice coming out slightly high pitched.

            Spike had just settled the babies into their seats when the music started to play, and Hopie walked in, flower basket in hand and Cale beside her, his little chest sticking out proudly at the role he'd been given as ring bearer.

            Hopie through her flowers, and everyone who had been to Faith's wedding wondered what else the little Shanshu had in that basket.

            As they walked by, Cale waved at his mother and Oz, who were sitting amidst a group of Potentials who looked as if they were ready to kill Dakota, except for Maddy, who was beaming at the girl she'd adopted as her role model for all things bad-ass and slayer-y.

            Oz slipped his hand softly through Kate's, and though her hand tingled at his touch, she didn't shy away from it.  Her finger's closed softly around his, and she pressed back her heart's warning not to allow herself to feel this way again.

            _She supposed that she hadn't ever really loved him, even on their wedding day, when she'd been so in love with the idea that he loved her, with his desire to be normal.  She hadn't realized then that he didn't love her.  Oh, maybe in his own way he had, but more than anything, he'd wanted to own her, to possess her._

_            He'd wooed her with his soft eyes and his sensitive talk about the realization that he wanted more than sex out of relationship.  He mentioned that he'd sowed his wild oats, but that he was ready for something more serious._

_            What he'd meant was that he'd figured out that she wasn't going to play his games, and that he would marry her as an expert move, and because he thought, deep down, that she was unattainable.  So he'd asked, expecting her to say no, and she'd answered, expecting to say no, with a desperate yes._

_            And so they had married.  He'd cheated on her during their honeymoon, and her police instincts wouldn't let her remain ignorant.  She would have left him, but then she'd found out about Cale, and she'd known that she had no place to go.  Where would she have gone?  Back to __L.A.__?__  To Angel?  A vampire?  Not hardly._

_            And then Cale had been born, and Parker had told himself that it was justification to leave, onto the next girl, the next challenge, his confidence and sensitive aura still in place as he'd told the next woman about his son, who he claimed had been stillborn._

_            And Kate had been alone._

Kate pushed the phantoms behind her, and waved back at her son with her free hand, leaning her head softly toward Oz's.  He squeezed her hand softly, and the two of them sat there, feeling the warmth in each other's hands.

            "Well, de-ja-vu and then some," Lorne said, his white tuxedo fairly glowing in the light of the building.  "It seems like not long ago that I presided over another little nuptial, and we know how that ended."  He gestured toward the twins, both asleep in their carriers.

            "But today," Lorne said, looking at Cordelia and Angel standing next to each other, each radiating joy and butterflies all at once.  "Today, we celebrate something else, something that started in friendship over tough times.  Something that grew steadily to love, steadfast and true.  This is the real deal, but don't take it from me.  Take it from them."

            Angel cleared his throat awkwardly and then he began to speak, clearly uncomfortable, but with a tenderness in his eyes.  "Cordelia," he said.  "You were my friend when I needed a friend.  You were a mother when my son had none.  You gave me a daughter, and you gave me yourself, always freely, always joyfully."  Angel paused.  "I look at you, and I wish that I could stop time, just so that I could keep you this way in my memory forever, and then I realize that if I stopped time, you wouldn't be here, with me, laughing with me and bringing me back down to earth and out into the – metaphoric- sunlight.  I realize that I want to live with you, forever, one day at a time.  I love you.

            "I will be faithful to you, in heart, body, and mind.  I will protect you from all harm, and I will love you, every day of our lives, because you taught me the value of a single moment in time."

            Angel placed the ring on her finger.  "With this ring, I thee wed," he said, falling back on tradition.  "To have and to hold, in sickness and in health, in good times and bad, for as long as we both shall live."  He kissed her hand.

            "Forever," he whispered.

            "Wow," Hopie said in a loud whisper to Cale.  "That's the most I've ever heard my daddy say."

            Cordelia smiled.  "Angel," she said, her voice clear and steady.  "The first time I met you, I thought 'wow, he's hot.'  Then I found out you were a vampire, and I thought 'I can deal with that.'"  Cordelia paused, remembering the person she had been.  "But I'm not that person anymore," she said softly.  "I'm a better person because I love you, and I love you more honestly, more deeply, than I ever knew was possible.  You've given me the dream, the family I always wanted, and I want nothing more than to go to bed each night with you by my side and wake up each morning next to you."

            She slipped the ring onto his fingers.  "With this ring," she said softly, looking straight into his eyes, "I thee wed.  To have and to hold, in sickness and in health, for as long as we both shall live."

            "And now," Hopie said, by this time an expert on weddings, "they kiss."

            Angel broke into a wide grin as Lorne pronounced them husband and wife.  "You heard our daughter," he told Cordelia.  "And now, we kiss." He leaned in, and kissed Cordelia passionately on the mouth.

            Lindsey walked over to Faith and kissed her on the mouth, grateful for everything that he had been given.

            Kate surprised Oz as she leaned over to kiss him, softly, hesitantly.  He wrapped his arms around her and kissed back.

            "Looks like everyone's kissing," Willow said, smiling mischievously at Wes.

            "Well then, we must keep up the status quo," Wes said, leaning in to kiss the mother of his child.  Then his thoughts whirled.  Everyone was kissing?  Surely that didn't mean that Anni and Jordy were kissing.  They were far too young for that after all, and… Willow kissed him harder, intent on keeping him distracted.

            Clay leaned over to Nicolaa, kissing her, while still keeping an eye on Maddy, who appeared to be helping Spike with the babies.  He let out a sigh of relief.  As Jordy was currently with Anni and there weren't any other young boys in sight, he figured they were safe.

            Jordy looked at Anni, both of them feeling a little bit shy all of a sudden.  Jordy leaned over and, after a moment, kissed the scar on her neck, and his mind was filled with sudden visions.

            _Anni__ refusing to become the arch slayer.__  The power of Turot turning colors in the air, from purple to a brilliant yellow.  Anni becoming swallowed in the power, even as the remains of the purple mist became absorbed in her body, pushed down by the yellow that was the good power._

_            The scene changed then._

_            Willow's pregnant stomach and the new life growing inside became visible, and Jordy watched, as Willow's love, her sacrifice, grew with the child, both of them changing, the child struggling to take on the characteristics of the mother who carried her, the love between them strong, even then._

_            Then Anni's hand was pressed to Willow's stomach, and Jordy saw the magic, the amber-colored power, rushing out of Anni and into Willow's pregnant stomach as the baby fought off Lilah's magical kidnapping plans once and for all, becoming Willow's daughter through the borrowed magic and through love._

_            As the yellow power seeped out of Anni, the purple began rising, no longer held down by the good.  _

_            Ari.  Anni.  Ari.  Anni._

Jordy gasped.  

            "What is it?" Anni asked.  Jordy looked around.  Everyone was still kissing.

            "I'll tell you later," he said, gathering his courage and leaning in to kiss her gently on the lips.

            Chance leaned over to Kendall and Joss.  "I don't think Dakota's wearing any underwear," she whispered to them.  Kody glared at the Potentials.

            Kendall grinned wickedly.  "Course she's not," she said.  "All of her underwear was misplaced this morning."

            The other girls giggled.  Kendall had been forced to settle for little ways of flouncing Kody.

            "But what about the pair she was wearing?" Colette asked. Joss said nothing.  She was trying, but she still hated the other Potentials half the time, and she was still flounced on a regular basis, even though the others were growing to love her slowly but surely.

            "Little Faith," Kendall said wickedly.  "Sleeps in the nude."

            Dakota made a mental note to put Kendall in the hospital as soon as the festivities were over.

Maddy grinned at Spike.  

            "What are you grinning about?" Maddy asked.

            "Buffy won't mind," Maddy said earnestly.

            "Won't mind what?" Spike asked, completely clueless, as Maddy took him off guard, kissing him on the lips, hard.

            "Bloody hell!" Spike said, pushing her off.  "You're twelve."

            "Yeah," Maddy said, smiling.  "And that was great."

            Cale tugged on the hem of Hopie's dress.

            "Girls yucky," he said.

            "Boys are gross," Hopie responded.

            Cale grinned.  "You not girl," he said.  "You Hopie."  And standing on his very tiptoes, he kissed the very bottom of her chin in a slobbery, little boy kiss.

            "You're not a boy," Hopie conceded.  "You're Cale."  Then she looked around.  "And now," she said.  "We're finally married."

            Angel leaned over and picked her up.

            "Yeah," Cordelia said, awed.  "We finally are."

AND THAT'S IT, PEOPLE.  FLUFFY, I KNOW, AND THERE ARE STILL PLENTY OF QUESTIONS ABOUT THE BABY TRIAD, BUT HEY, I HAVE TO LEAVE YOU wondering about something.

If you get bored before I post the Maddy fic (could be a month or more), you can try to figure out exactly what Maddy is… as she's not just a Potential.  There are clues a plenty in this piece and in THINGS, so good luck!

And please review if you enjoyed reading any of this story at all.  It's taken a lot of time, and it took me at three AM on a day that I've been sick to finish it.

Ciao for now, and much love to you all.

~Jen                  


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